W Knight is no socialist - there are few in Orange County, I believe - but neither is he a logician or a Christian, which are perhaps more sustainable breeds there.

It flies in the face of millenniums to argue that a degree of upward mobility would eliminate poverty and that therefore the resultant universally affluent society had now no need of subsidies.

The poor, as Jesus observed - somewhat cynically, to my unspiritual mind - are always with you. They grow your wheat and drill your oil. It makes little sense to let them sicken and die young by scrapping a system for which there is plenty of money at more fortunate levels of society.

So there are doctors in Britain and Australia who fiddle their lists to cheat the system, are there? How human of them. That is nothing a little high-minded state snooping won't mitigate, and no reason for throwing out the baby with the bath water.

There are even self-seeking reasons for a modicum of socialism: pre-revolutionary France, Citizen Knight, taxed the poor to feed the rich, and look what happened to it.

Simon Johnstone

Bangkok

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California dreamin' is alive and well in the 21st Century

Re: "Bt30 is an unsustainable form of socialism for Thailand", Letters, April 16.

W Knight from Orange County, California, would advise us on the glories of capitalism and the evils of supporting the old and infirm. The writer presumes to lecture Thais on the road to domestic responsibility. The writer might be well advised to arrange the affairs of Orange County first.

The writer, who lives in an area with one of the highest standards of living in the world - with an average annual income of more than Bt3 million - is out of his element in Thailand. Homes in Orange County average about Bt20 million. People in Orange County live in a world economically separated from Thailand by more than miles and culture. He also conveniently forgets that Orange County fell into bankruptcy in 1994, heralding the largest municipal financial failure in the history of California. The amount? US$1.6 billion [Bt60.9 billion]. Guess who paid the bill? The California taxpayer.

Here's another titbit to consider: if we are to believe the statistics, almost 50 per cent of all personal bankruptcies in the US are due to overwhelming medical costs. That means, as an American, if you get sick, you lose your home, your farm, your car, everything.

Now - fast forward to today. A European I know recently had major eye surgery here in Bangkok. His government paid the whole bill (his country has a gross domestic product that measures as just a speck on the international scale of GDP (compared with the US). If he is in a life-threatening condition, the government of his land of birth foots the bill to fly him home.

Thailand needs no instruction on social justice and economic productivity from California. A just nation has a moral responsibility to care of the weak and underprivileged.

D Ross

Bangkok

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Calling them a 'mob' is clearly inappropriate

During the past few months, there have been endless references to the street activities of anti-Thaksin mobs. Such use of the word "mob" has appeared not only in the English press, but in the Thai press as well, as "mob" has become subsumed into Thai discourse as a borrowed English word. However, whether in Thai or English, the word "mob" has been wrongly used to describe the anti-Thaksin protests.

The English dictionary definition of "mob" clearly states that a mob is disorderly, lawless, riotous, irrational and violent. The anti-Thaksin demonstrations clearly do not fit such a definition. On the contrary, the protests have been orderly, rational and peaceful. Both Thai and foreign observers actually commented positively on these aspects of them.

It should be appreciated that the use of the word "mob" is highly pejorative - a term of opprobrium - and immediately conjures up a highly negative image. This may well serve the political interests of the authorities. However, such usage should not be allowed to continue, as it is not only linguistically incorrect, but unfair and unjust as well.

Lux et Veritas

Bangkok

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PM would earn kudos if he did some good in his free time

How nice it is to be rich and powerful. When the climate gets hot, and the political temperature keeps boiling, one can just go off with cronies on a trip round the world. No matter that the death toll on the roads keeps rising to record levels; no matter that the country is in a state of confusion. Thaksin would earn more sympathy if he were to throw himself into promoting road safety during his free time.

Atip Munvit

Bangkok

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Songkran has degenerated into shameful barbarity

We have been coming to Thailand for several years. As a result, we have experienced many Songkran festivals. Sadly, this will be our last. In the early years, we would be greeted with a sprinkle of water as we passed by street corners, participants at shop stalls, etc. But in the past few years, it has gotten out of hand. Water is hurled from buckets, hoses, backs of trucks, etc, as you walk down any and every street. Nowhere is it safe for a senior to walk. We have experienced Songkran in Bangkok, Hua Hin and Chiang Mai. We have decided that this will be our last Songkran festival, as we were held hostage in our hotel room for five days. We are not crying sour grapes; we firmly believe in the local traditions of any country that we visit. What we are saying is that in our opinion, it has gotten totally out of hand.

J and P Drdul

Canada

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Thaksin is certainly neither gone nor forgotten

Re: "Thaksin 'still has total power'", News, April 15.

Your front-page story underlines the simple fact that Thaksin has not only not stood aside, but also once the April 23 by-election confirms a National Assembly, he will be back as prime minister!

Paul Cheesman

Bangkok

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Nothing to show for all that expense for April 2 election

As events transpired, Thaksin demonstrated he is a master of disguise and deception. He did not say one word about his resignation, and God knows how long he can remain as a caretaker PM.

To all of the foreign press in Thailand: this is an announcement to you that it is Thaksin's tactical retreat only and not his resignation from politics!

He can strike back at any time he wishes with only one opposition leader from the Twilight Zone. There are more than 39 constituencies where Thai Rak Thai does not have the necessary 20-per-cent vote, and nobody knows how long the re-election process will take until this void is filled. How will they solve the one missing party list of Thai Rak Thai, nobody knows. Last but not least, how long will Thaksin stay in power as a caretaker PM? Nobody knows either!

The thing that we do know is we already spent Bt2.2 billion for nothing and got 498 Thai Rak Thai MPs, one opposition leader from God knows what political party and still the biggest question remains unanswered about the moral ethics of Thaksin, which need to be scrutinised and probed. The only way out is the unconditional resignation of Thaksin until the Constitution is amended. The person in charge should be appointed from a pool of "acceptable and honest" people and not from Thai Rak Thai's pool of political rejects.

Dr Supong Limtanakool

National Broadcasting Commission designate

Bangkok

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'The Da Vinci Code' is nothing more than a ripping yarn

I have been asked regularly whether Dan Brown's controversial "The Da Vinci Code" really reveals such ancient secrets and whether Leonardo Da Vinci was involved in secret societies such as those described in the book.

That would surprise me, as Leonardo was not only an artist and a polymath genius, but also a pure experimenter completely dedicated to his work and research.

Anglo-Saxons seem to suffer a disparaging, invidious envy of him. It is not the first time they have attributed something shady to Leonardo. They already tried to accuse him of having forged the Holy Shroud of Turin, the House of Savoy's most cherished possession, although it was kept for many centuries in the Hagia Sophia until the sack of Constantinople by the crusaders, three centuries before Leonardo's birth.

Therefore, I was compelled to read the book in order to give my curious acquaintances an answer. The plot's justification is hinged on the "g" in sangreal (sangraal, sangrail), from the old French Saint Graal (Latin gradalis, dish, vessel). The spelling sangreal, however, derives falsely from sang real, or royal blood.

The book constantly reminded me of Umberto Eco's "Focault's Pendulum", but with a difference. Eco's is a brilliant satire aimed at New Agers and conspiracy/secret-society buffs. Brown's peddles his plot theme as a true one; its overtones are the usual anti-Catholic prejudices so cherished by the Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Brown also panders to the conspiracy buffs and a bit to the Francophobes by making Jesus, a Jew, the ancestor of the Merovingian kings. As too many have taken seriously the claims in Brown's foreword, the Church had to post a website (www.jesusdecoded.com) to debunk them.

In essence, "The Da Vinci Code" is a book of pure fiction and should be treated as such.

Dr Massimo-F Buonaiuto

Nonthaburi

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