Published on September 01, 2005
Re: “Govt U-turn on buy-back”, News, August 29. Although the government has decided not to purchase the Skytrain and metro to create one transport company, it need not abandon the “single transport authority” concept to bring about coordinated routes, marketing, ticketing and fare structures.
In London, Transport for London is the single authority that provides this role and coordinates all types of transport but actually operates none – it deals with the London underground (with three operators); coordinates all London buses (with 37 operators); markets the capital’s over-ground rail services (with seven operators), plus the Docklands Light Railway, the Croydon Tramlink and the Riverbus services.
It also deals with the All London Travelcard allowing unlimited travel over any system on one ticket – something Bangkok badly needs. A single transport authority for Bangkok could greatly increase transport coordination and reduce traffic congestion. Paul Cheesman Bangkok -------------------------------- Strong and swift action the best way to tackle a problem Re: “‘Bangkok Post’ sackings lead to call for interim editor’s head”, News, August 30. The firing of the Bangkok Post’s news editor by interim editor David Armstrong was the right thing to do. As Armstrong said, certain standards have to be maintained, and the scope and degree of slipping that produced the wrongful story about cracks at the new airport justified his actions in firing news editor Sermsuk Kasitipradit. In Thailand, every time someone gets fired, it is too harsh. Too bad the Bangkok Post is not part of the government so that Sermsuk could be transferred to an inactive post. Hmm.... I know well over a thousand locals who should be fired for incompetence, but it will not happen. Those who are incompetent, reckless or otherwise lacking do not deserve their jobs. It is hardly possible to make a more simple argument. Why haven’t these protesters sat down with the fired editor and asked him some pointed questions? Like, who, what, when, where, why, how? These basic requirements in the airport runway cracks story were either missing or wrong. Fire him? Absolutely! Brian Knight Nakhon Ratchasima -------------------------------- Hard to live with govt’s overselling of Thai culture Re: “Living with Thainess? Excuse me?” Opinion, August 29. I share the same concerns about Thailand that are expressed in this column. The promotion of “Thainess” could be so good culturally, as in producing marketable items from poor areas in Thailand. But the Thai government should first show Thais that such “Thainess” can, in productive ways, bring money to the country, while not being used to exploit people or be too focused on moneymaking. The government’s current approach would undermine all things that are great about Thailand. I want to see Thais proud of what a beautiful culture we have (or had) and not see it as a thing for making money. We all need money to live, but don’t need to have our lives revolve around money, which is promoted in the government’s propaganda. The government should rethink the idea of trying to make a quick buck off everything Thailand offers, and stop inviting the rest of the world to rape our country for financial gain. Current development strategies lack class, are overly commercial, don’t pay enough attention to environmental and cultural sensitivities, and are not good for the long-term development of our economy. Thitima Ratanachaiyaphan Bangkok -------------------------------- Exasperated media should ignore the PM for a while The question is: why does the press continue to give the PM and his underlings a platform? Who is at fault for the mockery of the press by Thaksin? The media themselves. There are hordes of reporters hanging on every word uttered from the mouths of individuals in Thaksin’s inner circle. Why not just forget for a few days that the PM is on this planet? I am positive that much of the public would be delighted, though some might miss their government soap opera. An Observer Bangkok -------------------------------- Immigration formalities apparently optional for some On August 21, my friends and I took a Thai Airways flight from Kunming to Bangkok with a brief stopover in Chiang Mai. Upon arriving at Bangkok’s Don Muang Airport, we expected our flight to berth at the international terminal, since we had quite a number of international passengers onboard. Instead we landed at the domestic terminal, where the instruction was given that all international passengers were to be driven by bus to the international terminal. Surprisingly, there were no measures to separate international from domestic passengers, and anyone on the flight could have simply walked out onto the streets of Bangkok. If I were a foreign national wishing to sneak into Thailand illegally, the flight from Kunming would have been the perfect opportunity to do so. A concerned citizen Bangkok -------------------------------- The United States should be less belligerent with Iran If the US would stop its sabre waving and try to think of ways to make peace in the world things would be so much better. In the case of Iran, nearly all the world thinks that Iran wants nuclear power for peaceful means, not for weapons. So many countries already use nuclear energy. The US simply does not trust Iran. I suggest that the US offer to send to Iran a team that could help build a nuclear power plant. The US would gain by making a new and desperately needed friend in the Middle East. Iran is not Iraq. Americans seem to lump all Muslim countries together – how simplistic. No wonder the US has so many enemies in the world today. Don Moisen Bangkok -------------------------------- There’s surely no need to adjust so elegant a script ... Re: “Why not drop that tiresome old Sanskrit nonsense?” Letters, August 30. Why do some people like to get into print on a subject on which they seem to know almost nothing? I would like to point out that my Australian Pocket Oxford dictionary gives 24 vowel sounds used in English. Which is more sensible, to load them on to five letters, so that the spelling tells us nothing about the sound, or to give each vowel its own shape so that we know how to pronounce it? Also, should we replace the beautiful Thai script so that we farang can murder it more easily? I think you’re trying to make us a laughing stock, Connie. Malachi Clark Nakhon Pathom -------------------------------- ... though a few more spaces might make things easier I have followed the recent discussion suggesting that the Thai written language be broken down into individual words instead of running it together the way it is currently. First of all, as a foreigner, I would not presume to tell the Thai people how they should construct their language. I do know, however, from my own efforts to learn Thai, that such a suggestion would be useful for me in a strictly learning sense. I can comprehend signs quite well, but when attempting to read something longer, such as a book, newspaper or an announcement of some kind, I stumble along trying to recognise the words. Often I don’t even know where on ends and another begins. Trying to pick up the sentence beyond the confusion point often just leads to frustration. If Thai language instruction texts started, at least initially, by dividing the text into words, that would be a great confidence builder. I could look up words I don’t know. As my proficiency in the language increased, at the intermediate or advanced level, I would better able to deal with the run-on nature of the written language. Bill Dahm Bangkok -------------------------------- Make use of both cooperation and competition in schools The key to activating progressive Thai educational reform begins with a fair and honest appraisal and explicit understanding of the current system’s limitations, accompanied by a clearly focused vision of how to meet the specific future challenges necessary to ensure educational quality and equity for all children and young adults. The overall goal should be to create a new generation of competitive citizens with hands-on experiential discovery skills who can cope effectively with increasingly complex national and global paradoxes. To evaluate learner achievement, two seemingly contradictory approaches in striving for success have been advocated by international educators. “Competition” makes comparisons among learners to indicate achievement, primarily as measured by norm or criterion-referenced tests. “Cooperation” encourages all participants to work together to solve vital everyday life problems. In reality, we are not forced to choose one or the other. We can opt for the best of both, since complementary sequential learning alternatives often enhance each other. Pax vobiscum. Dr Chanchai Prasertson Bangkok
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