Published on August 13, 2005
Africa is able to combine its rich heritage and resources with outside assistance
Re: “Africa in no way deserves any more Western aid”, Letters, July 7.
I wish to respond to the rather ill-informed and jaundiced view on Africa expressed by one Advocatus Diaboli. Far from his sweeping generalisations on corruption and African leadership, Africa is now blessed with a crop of dedicated and visionary leaders like Obasanjo, Mbeki, Bouteflika and Wade, to mention a few, who are determined to turn the continent’s fortunes positively around. Africa is the richest continent in the world, endowed with rich natural and human resources, but more than 300 years of slavery, colonialism and neo-colonial exploitation have largely ravaged it and made it poor. To correct the situation, African leaders have formed the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), aimed at reducing poverty, promoting growth and development and halting the continent’s marginalisation. The key word here is “partnership” and not “benevolence”. Africa is not a “beggar” continent. It has enough natural resources. What is needed is mobilisation of these internal resources in constructive partnership with developed countries. “Aid”, “assistance” and “debt relief” are meant to free resources to cater for health, education, infrastructure etc, with a view to improving the productive capacity of the continent. Thanks to the advocacy of Tony Blair, a good start is now being made. On the issue of governance, Africa has imposed on itself the African Peer Review Mechanism, whereby one leader can look another squarely in the eye and hold him accountable for good governance and accountability. The most ridiculous comment by Diaboli was that without colonialism Africa would be a lot worse. He should familiarise himself with African historiography, and he would know that before so-called Western civilisation, there were great African empires – Songhai, Ghana, Mali, Oyo and Kanem-Bornu, to mention a few. These empires made great contributions to government processes, architecture, learning and culture. He should also know that the most powerful woman in history, Cleopatra, was an African! Olufunso Olumoko Ambassador of Nigeria Bangkok -------------------------------------------- Flight attendants are rested but do have other problems Re: “Cabin crews on long-haul flights deserve sympathy”, Letters, August 10. I am an international cabin-crew member for an international airline based in Asia and read with interest Christian Lloyd’s letter. I and, I am sure, others in the airline industry appreciate his concern, so let me set the record straight: no crew with any airline works a 17-hour shift. Be it Thai or Qantas or United Airlines, we all pretty much have the same standard “break times”, which are mandated by the Flight Attendants’ Association. Here is an excerpt from our handbook: “Rest breaks within operating flight duty periods: “A flight attendant must not work more than six hours from the commencement of an operating flight duty period without commencing a rest break of 30 minutes, such a rest break to be included in the duty period. For every additional four hours of operating flight duty following the first six hours, the flight attendant must commence a further rest break of 30 minutes, such a rest break to be included in the duty period. “The company must provide adequate and suitable rest facilities for in-flight use by the flight attendant during his/her rest breaks. “Suitable in-flight rest facilities comprise curtained economy-class seating. “On single-sector flights where the operating flight duty period is planned in excess of 14 hours, the in-flight crew rest facilities must comprise curtained bunks and curtained economy-class seating. The number of bunks available must be determined with reference to the number of flight attendants and the timing of periods of rest.” So as you can read, we don’t work 17 hours straight. Now I do agree with his other comments, and they are sadly very true. Yes, we now have shorter turn-round times at our destinations, and there have been disastrous management decisions over the years. I also agree that after almost 25 years as a flight attendant, service has gone down the toilet. I started with Pan Am on the Pacific routes when two languages plus English were mandatory; three days’ rest after a long flight was normal. These days, we are lucky to have 24 hours, which is the minimum legal rest time. But to be fair, normally we have almost two days (38-40 hours). I thank people like Christian Lloyd for bringing to the general flying public our problems, but I just had to clear up some misinformation on his part. I try, and my crew tries, to give the best possible service, and these days it is very difficult. This week, I read where a passenger threw hot noodles at a flight attendant because she was upset over being asked to turn off her mobile phone. Is it glamorous being a flight attendant? I will have to say no. It really is no better than working in a canteen. Stephan O’Brien Bangkok -------------------------------------------- Kanok seems to have been made a scapegoat Re: “THAI chief suspended over huge loss”, News, August 11. Seems unfair to blame one man for THAI’s poor performance, the lack of investment in upgrading the fleet and installing the in-flight entertainment system needed to compete with the likes of Emirates and many others. Kanok Abhiradee seems to have rebranded the airline, and times are hard for all airlines, with oil prices etc that have affected Thai tourism. He seems to be the scapegoat for previous presidents’ lack of foresight in upgrading and reinvestment. THAI was a leader and respected for that. Robin Richardson Bangkok -------------------------------------------- Airport taxi system breaking down amid indifference I recently arrived on a domestic flight at Don Muang Airport and was horrified by the taxi system now operating there. Previously, passengers were required to queue at the taxi kiosk and received a voucher for use with a metered taxi. This system worked very well, and waiting times were short. This time, however, a long queue of patient and tired travellers formed at the taxi kiosk, while a large collection of taxis waited some distance away for customers who were willing to pay non-metered rates. Few taxis actually picked up passengers at the kiosk, and when they did, passengers were not provided with the customary voucher. The taxi that I was provided with did not use the meter, and I was not aware of this until I had reached my destination. I have complained several times directly to the airport about the situation, but to no avail. Who is responsible for controlling taxis at the airport? Is the current system a result of negligence or incompetence? What is the procedure for complaining about poor service when no one I phoned at the airport seemed to understand complaint procedures, and there is no complaint facility on the airport website? Don’t the airport authorities realise that tired travellers do not appreciate delays in transport, especially when they are completely avoidable? Unfortunately, uncorrected mistakes made at the existing airport are doomed to be repeated at the new one. Peter Moseley Bangkok -------------------------------------------- English spelling tends to be all over the place Re: “Linguistic evolution is a natural and necessary part of improved communication”, Letters, August 11. I was appalled to read, in Philip Rowell’s otherwise level-headed letter, that one reason for the “rapacity” of English was that its “writing system is so good”. I can think of no alphabetically written language whose spelling is as aberrant as that of modern English, representing as it does the pronunciation of Chaucer’s day in the 14th century, before the Great Vowel Shift and the loss of “gh” made it a dangerous irrelevance. Reform is long overdue, but the undoubted technical feasibility of this ever defers to the jealous inertia of the nation-states that share our tongue. We are all amused into recognition of the truth by George Bernard Shaw’s remark that “fish” should be spelt “ghoti”, with “gh” as in “enough”, “o” as in “women” and “ti” as in “nation”, but alas! when the sniggers fade, nothing is done, and millions of schoolchildren and learners are callously flung back on long drudgery. Simon Johnstone Bangkok -------------------------------------------- Clean up your own language before changing other ones Re: “Linguistic evolution is a natural and necessary part of improved communication”, Letters, August 11. Philip Rowell’s letter on reforming Thai writing smacks of cultural imperialism. In other parts, it is just plain silly. Because his primary language, English, has a punctuation system, he assumes other languages should have one as well. And because, culturally, he cannot cope with an absence of punctuation, he wants to impose it on Thai and presumably also on the other languages of the world that exist quite satisfactorily without it. If Rowell (and his partner) want to devote their energy to linguistic reform, why don’t they start with his own language? They could remove all the spelling and grammatical inconsistencies in English, then go on to reforming the punctuation: start with the apostrophe, which causes confusion even to native speakers. They could also get rid of the tense complexities (such as the perfect tense), the definite and indefinite articles, irrational verbs, upper and lower case (dying out anyway), singular and plural persons, the multiplicity of words having similar meanings and all the other eccentricities typical of European languages that cause such difficulty to Asian learners. Anyone who claims that written Thai looks “monotonous” has never enjoyed the pleasure of the stone inscription of King Ramkhamhaeng or the delight of reading Siamese royal manuscripts from the 19th century, with their elegant cursive style akin to the flourishes of Elizabethan English. It is the unique peculiarities of languages that are reflective of their particular cultures and which make them so interesting to learners. Please don’t try to impose Western linguistic characteristics on Asian languages. Rodney Sheaves Sydney, Australia
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