Last month protesters gathered in front of the EC building, demanding that the commissioners resign. Sure enough, the next day every columnist in the country, from Somchai of Thai Rath to Suthichai of The Nation, clamoured for the EC to get out. But no one knows exactly what the EC did wrong.

Now the Democrat Party is accusing Thai Rak Thai of paying small parties to run in the April 2 election. Again, all columnists jumped to their keyboards, clicking and clacking in perfect unison that the party was guilty as charged.

By the way, which is worse: paying small parties to contest an election or paying and intimidating them not to?

I'm not a member of the Thai Rak Thai fan club, but I am concerned that Thais are too credulous, willing to accept everything that is showered on them daily by the press.

I would love for columnists to think for themselves and occasionally express their absurdity by being absurd.

Meechai Burapa

Chiang Mai

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Are VIPs responsible for Skytrain anomalies?

 I was waiting for the Skytrain at Asok station to go into town at 1.30pm last Thursday. A train approached, then whistled on through the station at full speed and continued on down the track. I noted that it didn't stop at Nana station either. Everyone on the platform was shocked. We had never seen anything like this before.

The next train had double the load of passengers and it was almost impossible to squeeze in. Some people simply stopped trying and waited for the next train.

On Friday, at the same time at the same station, I saw a train stopped halfway between Asok and Phrom Phong stations. My train to Siam Square came as usual but another train went past the other way toward the train blocking the track. I have no idea how that was resolved.

So what happened?

A friend of mine speculated that "very important people" may have been on the Skytrain that didn't stop. That was the only thing we could think of to explain the unprecedented event.

Brian Elkey

Bangkok

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Authorities complicit in trafficking of children

 Re: "Thai kids abandoned abroad is a little-known problem", Letters, May 20.

The matter of Thai children being abandoned overseas in precarious situations is actually a well-known problem. But it has received little or no exposure in the Thai press.

I too have met countless Thai women over the years who, working as prostitutes, went to Europe through marriages of convenience, returned later to pick up their children and then came home once again to stay, without the children.

It is difficult to find out what happened to these trafficked children because many of them were illegitimate. Their fathers are unknown - or either dead or disappeared. The mothers do not care about the children and will not cooperate with relatives who want to locate them. Traffickers in women and children operate with the complicity of corrupt policemen, prosecutors, judges, welfare officials, and Foreign Ministry officials to obstruct efforts to trace and recover the children. The so-called "non-government organisations", including the Red Cross and United Nations, conspire with the traffickers and government officials to further obstruct tracing and recovery.

Thai embassy officials especially, due to their complicity in the illicit trade or due simply to their sexual perversion and cowardice, will do absolutely nothing to trace or recover a Thai child abandoned overseas. Often, they try to cover up the crime. Often, too, they conspire with the traffickers and their accomplices to intimidate the victims' relatives.

Worst of all, Thai communities abroad do nothing to help relatives find loved ones.

It is a shameful problem and any Thai child who survives traffickers and procurers is very lucky. I have met a few Thais who endured hell in their childhood and adolescence after their mothers sold them to paedophile rings overseas.

Anyone who listens to their accounts will feel shock and demand the prosecution and execution of their traffickers, including the Thais and foreign officials involved.

Dhongjai Gidrangsri

Bangkok

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Competition needed before UBC will listen to customers

 Re: "Why no English commentary for World Cup broadcasts?", Letters, June 11

I fully agree with the writer's complaint about UBC and the broadcast of the World Cup. They see fit to take our money but do not see fit to broadcast a world-class competition in English.

I have complained to UBC before but it has fallen on deaf ears. All I got was a vague answer or no answer at all. And don't bother writing to them, they don't even have the courtesy to answer.

Our only hope is that one day UBC will have competition, and at that time I will drop them like a hot potato. Until that time you will get no satisfaction complaining to UBC. They do not seem to be interested in any input from farangs.

David of Ubon

Ubon Ratchathani

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Waiting for the day US troops enter Rangoon

 United Nations envoys are basically useless. None of them has accomplished anything in the past 10 years. Recently, UN Under-Secretary for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari visited Burma and thought it was an honour to be housed at the Government Guest House on Inya Road. He did not know that the ruling junta housed him there so that they could videotape both his meetings with the National League for Democracy's executive committee and leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi again asked for a UN investigation of the May 30, 2003, massacre in Depayin. This irritated junta chief Than Shwe because there is a vacant cell at the International Criminal Court that the late Milosevic used to occupy. This is why Suu Kyi was not released.

Ten thousand American troops have been taking part in the Cobra Gold military exercises held in Thailand during the past four years. Than Shwe thinks US President George Bush is planning to send 10,000 US troops to Rangoon during the next national uprising in Burma.

Noted writer Ludu Daw Amar last month correctly stated that "a solution could only be found with a national uprising ... if you don't do that, nothing will happen".

We will find out when there is a national uprising in Burma whether 10,000 American troops are swiftly deployed to Rangoon to establish law and order, at the request of the elected government of Burma.

Myint Thein

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Senior Adviser to the Burmese Resistance

It's no surprise that the CIA shielded Nazi war criminal

 The recent news story that the American Central Intelligence Agency had a hand in protecting the German war criminal Adolph Eichmann after World War II is hardly surprising.

That the CIA helped German war criminals escape detection, capture, detention and prosecution for war crimes after WWII is well known. The CIA did so with full knowledge of their backgrounds as Nazi Party members, Gestapo officers and war criminals.

In some cases, like that of Wernher Von Braun, a top rocket scientist who became a public relations director for the National Space and Aeronautics Administration (Nasa), it might be argued that Americans acted in their own best interests by employing Germans suspected of complicity in committing war crimes.

But it cannot be argued that the CIA, or any American government agency, acted properly by hiding or employing countless war criminals who should have been prosecuted for war crimes and were of little or no tactical value to the United States or its foes and allies.

Numerous American government officials were bribed by German war criminals after the war to let them go, to hide them, to employ them, and/or to do business with them. Also, many American officials wrongly thought more highly of Germans, who had been thoroughly defeated, than their own countrymen.

Friedrich von Reder

Bangkok

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Try complex-carbohydrate diet and lose weight

 Are carbohydrates the real cause of obesity? I have devised a simple seven-day experiment that will resolve this question once and for all.

For one week eat nothing but whole-grain bread and raw plant foods, which are usually high in complex carbohydrates as opposed to refined carbohydrates such as sugar, which is not healthy to eat. Unless you're very skinny to begin with, by the end of the week you'll experience a significant drop in your weight. You probably won't even have to wait that long to see results.

You don't have to stick to the diet. Just try it for a few days so that you can see for yourself that the medical establishment and the media are insane for having ever suggested that it's even possible for complex carbohydrates to be the cause of obesity, or any other health problem for that matter.

What have you got to lose besides your blubber?

Eric Bahrt

Pattaya