Sagittarius ("Photograph of policeman on motorcycle says it all", Letters, May 19) complains about discrimination, using the euphemism "double-tier pricing" instead of "cheating" or "racist discrimination", while Lux et Veritas ("Suspension of sentences for civil servants reflects the old order of Thai society", Letters, May 19) proposes the solution to the problem. I quote: "The public, the judges and state authorities should not forget Article 30 of the Constitution, which states: 'All are equal before the law ... and discrimination due to differences in birthplace, nationality, language, gender age and education is prohibited'."

Perhaps we should carry a copy of the relevant section of the Constitution to show to companies or government departments who charge different prices, based on the perceived nationality of the customer, that they are, in fact, breaking the law.

I personally never go into anywhere or use any services where I am knowingly the victim of racism. I despise those who are so blatant as to advertise the different prices at their entrance. Even worse are those who write in Thai numerals for Thais and foreign numerals for foreigners, to hide, albeit ineffectively, the difference in price. Are those people so greedy that they do not realise they lose more than they gain? They cause Thailand to lose face in the international community. People visit here and leave with the impression that Thailand is a racist country.

I look forward to the day when someone is prosecuted for this breach of the Constitution. Perhaps The Nation may like to ask readers to contribute and supply names of companies, etc, that practice this discrimination, so that an exhaustive list could be publicised.

Bernard Walker

Bangkok

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Thai kids abandoned abroad is a little-known problem

Many Thai women marry foreigners, go abroad and take their children by a previous marriage to a Thai with them. Such marriages are often happy and offer definite advantages to the children, but many other such marriages do not work out, and the children suffer needlessly abroad. Many, if not most, marriages to foreigners break up within a few years, usually sooner than later.

In one Thai community in a big European city that I know well, in the past two or three decades, a large number of Thai women arrived through prostitution and marriages of convenience. Many returned to Thailand to fetch their children, the offspring of a previous marriage. Eventually, they separated from their foreign husbands and found themselves alone with their children in a big Western city. These Thai women were from poor rural peasant backgrounds and uneducated. Their only friends were other Thais whom they and their children would have been better off without. Only one placed her child in an elite private international school. Some, following the examples of parents who seemed to care, put their children in a local Mater Dei school.

But the children of many other single Thai women wound up in inferior state-run schools in the city's slums and dubious public city or Catholic boarding schools. Some of the children were taken away by the police and placed in state homes. The children found themselves unfairly treated by bigoted school staff. Few had been exposed to middle-class conditions and values or even halfway decent working-class homes in Europe. Few went on to college or even finished high school. Most fill local demand for menial labour. To survive, many will have to resort to underworld activities involving smuggling contraband and prostitution.

Other Thai children, left with their mother's second husbands, did not fare better. The husbands did not really want the children or have the means to provide for them. The children wound up living with numerous different families about town and went to the most inferior schools, where they received the worst possible treatment. Some wound up in the care of the police.

Many of the Thai children in this European city previously had a better, happier life among the poor peasantry in upcountry Thailand. They should have been left at home with their grandparents, aunts and uncles.

This sort of tragedy has struck many families in Thailand.

Tong Khenglangseng

Bangkok

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Singapore has a long history of pushing its political system

Re: "Singapore's political system works for Singaporeans", Letters, May 19.

Singaporean Ambassador Peter Chan was too modest when he claimed that Singapore did not hold itself out as a model for any other country. I seem to recall that no so long ago, his country's elder statesman, Lee Kuan Yew, regularly preached to anyone who would listen about "Asian values", as if everyone else in Asia shared the same interpretation of the term.

Katha

Canada

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Now let a wholly independent body look at EC findings

Re: "Poll scam 'needs further probe'," News, May 18.

The Election Commission (EC) subcommittee investigating the hiring of small parties to run against Thai Rak Thai must clearly identify which, if any, political party was involved. But justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done - especially since the findings will likely spell dissolution for the guilty party.

The subcommittee allegedly found that Thai Rak Thai did the hiring and is satisfied that investigations are complete. However, EC chair Vasana Puemlarp said it should question the Thai Rak Thai people implicated before reaching a verdict, and if he is to be believed, the investigation may not be over yet.

The EC's neutrality has long been seriously questioned, since its decisions just happened to benefit Thai Rak Thai so often.

Thus, to ensure neutrality, transparency and thoroughness in the investigation, it should be the courts and the Department of Special Investigations that review the subcommittee's findings and conduct further probing, if any. Vasana should stay well clear of the matter.

Burin Kantabutra

Bangkok

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'The Da Vinci Code' has been a marketer's dream come true

"The Da Vinci Code" is a work of genius or maybe geniuses, such as Dan Brown, the movie company and of course Leonardo Da Vinci.

Brown, even though he is a mediocre author, managed crudely to cobble together a murder mystery combining our fascination with Leonardo, conspiracy theories and perhaps, for some of us, the origins of the Christian religion.

The book in many places is wordy and plodding. It's 600 pages that could have been written in half as many and possibly improved.

It seems strange to base the plot on solving English word clues based on Italian Renaissance paintings; but it was aimed mostly at an American audience, most of whom are not expected to know any other languages. That is a bit of a challenge for us farangs over here, as some of the dialogue in the movie is in French, Italian and Latin, with Thai subtitles but none in English.

The film company saw the potential of the book and managed further to enhance its share in the very competitive summer-movie market by limiting media access to the film shooting and forbidding those involved in the production to talk about it before its release.

As a bonus, the reaction of Christians here, who probably never read the book, to ban the film or at least cut the ending was a godsend for publicity. Anyone whose religious faith would be seriously threatened by a film as believable as the average Batman movie is on shaky ground, at best.

Finally, the story would not have succeeded except for the real genius behind it all: Leonardo himself. No other Renaissance artist attracts the interest of the public more than the mysterious life and works of Leonardo.

We of course are looking at his paintings with 21st-century eyes and unaware of the many cultural points of reference from the 15th century that he alluded to in his paintings.

That makes them doubly mysterious to us but probably not to 15th-century Italians.

As a formula, even though the book and movie may be laughably shallow in the "scholarship" department, it's a work of marketing gold. I can't wait for the sequel. Oh yes, there is one of sorts, called "The Solomon Key", and Dan Brown is working on it now.

Brian Elkey

Bangkok

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Film ratings would address a lot of censorship concerns

Re: "11th-hour reprieve for 'The Da Vinci Code'," News, May 18.

Cheers to the six members of the Censorship Board who decided not to make any physical cuts to the movie "The Da Vinci Code". Boos to the five who still wanted to and an overall raspberry to the whole group, which allowed censorship to occur anyway.

Westerners are allowed to see the uncensored version, while the Thai viewers have had the translation altered in places, to change the meaning of what the actors are saying.

Let's solve this by, as a recent editorial suggested, introducing a movie-rating system.

Christian Lloyd

Bangkok

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Offended by a movie? Well then, just don't watch it!

Can someone please explain why the 61 million Buddhists and 3 million-plus other faiths in Thailand could have their movie viewing choices decided for them by the less than half-million Christians in the country?

If, as claimed, a work of fiction such as " The Da Vinci Code" might affect the faith of Christians, that faith must be weak indeed.

Those offended by the movie have the option not to see it, but to try to impose their beliefs on non-Christians is selfish and arrogant.

Amelia Komlertkul

Bangkok