The latest assault from Skytrain management on their hapless riders is no surprise after they stuck television sets on the platforms and made sure there was no escape from the loud adverts along the length of the platform. To BTS management, we're captive victims.

Before this, the approach was uncaring neglect. That still exists, of course. English-language carriage announcements for tourists are a joke, such as the useless "interchange station" at Siam Square. Interchange with what? Where? How?

Station signs are equally opaque. I've helped countless visitors at, for example, Prompong Station (The Emporium) who see only signs for the terminal stations of Morchit and Onnuj. Which one is for Siam Square? Or Sala Daeng? They struggle to find a map, but they often don't find one once they go through the ticket gate.

When you exit a train at Siam Station, you'll see no signs on the platform telling you where to transfer for which train. There are signs above the escalators, but you cannot read a sign while standing in front of hundreds of people pouring out of the trains and rushing towards the exits. If you're chatting with a friend on the train and don't hear the single announcement of which station you're at, and if the train is crowded, you're out of luck. After spending billions of baht to build the system, management cheapened out on maps and signs, putting only one station sign per carriage length along the platform. So if you aren't perfectly positioned in front of one of four signs, you can't read where you are.

The BTS managers give us four lousy platform signs but two television sets on every platform and a dozen loud television monitors in each set of carriages that display nothing but adverts. That tells you how little the BTS thinks of its passengers.

For an example of how to run a mass-transit line, the managers should spend their advertising revenue on a trip to Tokyo. Just one subway station has literally more signs than the entire Silom Line, and the subway video monitors display very useful station and route information in Japanese and English. They display adverts as well, but everything is silent, so passengers can decide for themselves if they want to pay attention.

It's a brilliant system and an example of how management can create a fine service when it's tuned into serving its customers, instead of just thinking of ways to milk them for as much money it can.

Paul Bradley

Bangkok

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High technology: source of and cure for noise pollution

Re: "Commuters want peace & quiet", News, June 21.

It's not only commuters who would like a little quiet. How about movie-goers who suffer from mobile phones going off in theatres? The technology exists to block calls; cinemas installing such would probably increase their audience numbers.

I suggest the People Who Love Quiet Club also turn their attention to this matter. And good luck to their efforts, too!

Punter

Bangkok

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Kudos to locals who are demanding a quiet commute

Re: "Commuters want peace & quiet", News, June 21.

It is highly commendable that a group, especially of Thai origin, has been formed seeking a measure of noise abatement. After living nearly four decades in Asia, with levels constantly increasing, I believe the group has indeed chosen a hard furrow to plough.

As with my old mum who could not sleep without the comfort of a ticking clock, I have come to the conclusion that a barrage of noise is a comfort to the populace at large. A new source I find intriguing is a certain fitness centre that blasts passers-by on Silom Road. I shudder to imagine the noise levels within their building. That those commendably working on their abs, glutes and aerobic health are being simultaneously deafened (literally) is quite a dichotomy.

I survive, having at great expense imported from the UK a quantity of wax ear muffles, the only effective noise barrier that really works outside of the ear defenders worn by airport staff on the apron. That the manufacturer has a chain of stores here and will not import them is unusual, although I guess there is no demand.

John Angus

Chon Buri

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Spotlight on the plight of the average oppressed Thai

Re: "Farewell from foreigner fed up with rampant corruption", Letters, June 20.

This anonymous and powerful letter by someone on the inside is a striking commentary on the culture of greed in the country and the corporate values of "profit over people" driving it. The letter-writer wishes the best "for the poor and average Thais, who is continually stomped beneath the greed of those above them".

We need people here to shine a spotlight on some of this corporate greed from the standpoint of workers and insiders, locals and expats who can see it. Thick, honest description, anonymous if necessary. The union group Working America in the states is currently sponsoring a "My Bad Boss Contest", collecting real worst-boss stories from workers about the terrible stuff businesses do to their employees, and the graft and corruption they have seen. Great idea for Thailand, too. Maybe the Thai Labour Campaign (thailabour.org) could start something. Or The Nation.

One Thai author whose fiction in English focuses on some of this and the grinding oppression of the average Thai is Pira Sudham, nominated in 1990 for a Nobel Prize in literature. Pira hails from impoverished Buri Ram province in Isaan, where he runs a remarkable experimental school, Sala Wittayatan. As he writes in his hard-hitting book, "Tales of Thailand": "In Thailand you wallow in the quagmire of greed." His stories and novels chronicle simple, honest Thais living the life of the damned, suffering hardships and injustice, while "the bribers and the bribed, corrupt officials, the swindlers ... bankers who caused their banks to crash, financiers who embezzled millions, gunmen for hire … were riding by as free as could be". I guess Sudham's work is more relevant today than ever (www.pirasudham.com).

Bill Templer

Phitsanulok

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Why is gambling by SMS condoned by the authorities?

Re: "Get your kicks SMS punting", Business, June 20.

I could not agree more with Achara Deboonme's "Streetwise" column. It is gambling and nothing less. Or so it struck me while I was watching the game between Ukraine and Saudi Arabia on Monday night. The score was 3-0 halfway through the second half, and the commentator still asked people to "guess" the winner by sending in an SMS to win prizes. He should have said, "The winner is now certain; send an SMS quickly to try your luck; it costs only Bt6 to give you a chance to win Bt100,000," or however much it was.

To me, it is gambling and, worse still, an open rip-off. The chances of being picked as the lucky punter are no more than one in a million, assuming several hundred thousand people fall for it and that some send in multiple entries. A fair first prize should have been in the region of several million baht. How lucrative it is for the organiser! (Shall we say bookie?) What's more, it is legal and risk-free!

KM

Bangkok

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Surakiart's UN candidacy can only meet with one response

Surakiart Sathirathai's candidature for the top UN position raises more questions then it answers.

How on earth can a member of a government that fails to punish willingly committed human-rights abuses be suggested for the top UN position? Thailand is a country that shows no respect for intellectual property rights; any visit to any IT mall will show the visitor the Thai stance on that. Corruption is endemic in Thailand, and efforts to counter it seem absent.

Once the world judges Thai politicians on their performance, there can be only one reaction to Surakiart's candidacy; let's be polite and reply with the famous Thai smile.

Utopia

Bangkok

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Is Thaksin beginning to reap what he has sown?

Re: "Thaksin to stand trial for perjury on Sept 18", News, June 20.

That Thaksin is to face criminal charges for perjury, in addition to the multitude of other personal problems he faces and those of Thai Rak Thai, prompts the question: "Thaksin, do you believe in karma?"

By now, he must be starting to believe.

Sibeymai

Bangkok

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Reasonable to want World Cup broadcasts in English

Re: "Farangs like low cost of living but want it to be like home", Letters, June 21.

I am sorry the writer was unable to follow the plot for the movie "Three Days of the Condor", but his sad experience at the movies does nothing to assuage farangs. Farangs happily accept Thai productions in Thai and have never demanded English commentary for them.

"Three Days of the Condor" and the Fifa World Cup are not Thai productions. Had the movie in question been a Thai production and the Thai dialogue muted and voiced over in English, he might have had a point, but that was not the case. The letter does not display an empathetic grasp of the farang complaint in regard to the World Cup.

The complaint has merit. Farangs have been victimised by gonzo marketing techniques that should be disgusting even to Thais. Farangs who live here with Thai spouses and children and have moved their life savings and made there home here are not really foreigners. They are part of the fabric of Thailand. On the World Cup issue, they have been wronged. Thais should stand with them on this issue.

Cha-am Jamal

Phetchaburi

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