The community-currency alternative being experimented with in Yasothon, the Boon Kut Chum, should be lauded and encouraged. Its effectiveness can be investigated empirically and introduced in similar inventive modes elsewhere in Thailand.

Instead of trying to bring capital in from outside, get people in low-income areas to create their own money. Nor is it suitable just for small rural villages. In the US, the local currency Ithaca Hours has been used now for a number of years in the small city of Ithaca in New York state. Ithaca Hours helps build the economy of Ithaca and keep the money local. It energises community pride, enhances local decision-making about economic priorities and generates a new sense of self-reliance, as in Yasothon. Experience shows that a local currency cements a new sense of community among people, multiplying what is called "social capital".

In Ithaca, some 900 local stores and businesses accept Ithaca Hours for goods and services. Some employers pay their wages in part in the town's own currency. It has created new employment opportunities not dependent on outside funding. The "Toronto dollar" is another successful and growing local currency, in one of Canada's major cities.

Richard Douthwaite, an economist who lives in Ireland, has described how communities there and in Scotland have used local currencies to help regain control of their economic futures (see his book, "Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economies for Security in an Unstable World"). David Block shows us how local money strengthens communities at www.ratical.org/many_worlds/cc/localmoney.html.

Boon Kut Chum is a great idea that needs to be tested more in the specifics of the Thai economy and spread wisely even outside the village to the tambon level, and to interested and enterprising towns. It can become an engine for a sufficiency economy in its local space.

Bill Templer

Phitsanulok

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Comments on foreign experts are out of step with reality

Re: "THAI baulks at moving to Don Muang", News, February 15.

I read with disbelief the comments by Council of Engineers president Vira Mavijak when he said: "Moreover, problems at Suvarnabhumi are tiny and need not be concealed, given that they do not lead to safety problems." He is further credited in your report as saying the appointment of foreign engineers would be a disgrace to the country. I'm not sure where this man has been lately but clearly not in the real world for the past few months.

His xenophobic reaction is, however, in harmony with one of your letter-writers, Nationality Irrelevant ("Independent, not foreign, voices needed in airport mess", Letters, February 15), who rambles on about independence being the critical factor in solving the woes of Suvarnabhumi.

Nationality Irrelevant is just mistaken in thinking independence is what is needed, when in fact it is persons who are trustworthy who are actually required now. But Vira has reacted in such a wildly intolerant, unjustifiable and irrational way that he has now forfeited any credibility he may have had and, in acting as an office-holder and not a private citizen, has now brought the Council of Engineers into disrepute.

I can only admire the courageous stance of Airports of Thailand chairman General Saprang Kalayanamitr in putting forward the idea of appointing foreign engineers in the face of such shrill, baseless and downright wrong criticism, founded, one must assume, on the saving of face at all costs, even the truth.

The sooner we feel the hand of strong government in this matter, the better for everyone, but most of all for the reputation of the Kingdom, as there is still much to lose.

Dr John Patterson

Bangkok

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Cooler heads must prevail for airport fiasco to be fixed

Re: "THAI baulks at moving to Don Muang", News, February 15.

I support Airports of Thailand's plan to bring in foreign experts to thoroughly examine the causes of the taxiway and runway cracks.

Council of Engineers president Vira Mavijak said hiring foreigners would cast doubt on our faith in Thai engineers, but if the Council and its members were previously involved with Suvarnabhumi, how can they now criticise their own work? By the same token, if they were previously passed over, their criticism will be seen as biased. If a Thai engineer happens to be, say, a Thai Rak Thai member, his judgement will be suspected by those against Thai Rak Thai, and likewise for any member of the Democrat Party.

Vira said that because the airport was designed by foreigners and some non-Thai firms took part in its construction, foreigners must not now come in to find out what's wrong. Surely Vira knows that all foreigners are not alike, nor are all foreign firms birds of a feather, any more than a Chinese is the same as a Japanese or Australian etc.

Choose a foreign firm that is considered to be credible as well as expert in engineering and give us an airport that air travellers can believe is one of the best facilities in the world.

Burin Kantabutra

Bangkok

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Engineering quality has declined in recent decades

Re: "'Foreign experts' responsible for much of the problems currently plaguing airport" and "Country needs all the qualified outside advice it can get", Letters, February 16.

The first writer believes in looking backward and casts blame on foreigners for the now infamous airport. The latter believes prospectively in obtaining all necessary help in retrieving the good name of the airport. I prefer the second man's approach.

Whenever I take a walk in Bangkok, I always think of the Thai Council of Engineers, which the engineers of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration must have been members of. The incessant complaints in regard to Bangkok's footpaths and the many memories of those tourists who have suffered twisted ankles do not reflect well on the council.

I recently entered one of the historic buildings (built in 1937) situated along Rajdamnoen Avenue and was amazed at the clever design and quality of this structure after nearly 70 years. Engineers back in those days, irrespective of their nationalities, would have been able to walk proudly along the footpaths of Rajdamnoen Avenue.

Songdej Praditsmanont

Bangkok

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Will heavier aircraft serve to exacerbate the situation?

As a frequent visitor to Thailand, I read about repairs to the new Suvarnabhumi Airport, which I have already used. Has anyone considered the arrival of the new Airbus A380 aircraft next year? Its maximum weight is 590 tonnes, against 412 tonnes for a Boeing 747. Are those repairing the runways and taxiways taking account of the effect this extra weight will have on a swampy subsoil?

F O'Dowd

Ireland

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Complete independence is sometimes far from desirable

I have applied the sufficiency economy to myself for three months and would like to share the experience with the readers of The Nation. I reduced my monthly spending from Bt120,000 to Bt30,000.

I stay home and trade stocks using the Internet instead of going to my broker's office in central Bangkok. I don't go shopping any more. I don't go to cinemas any more; the movies eventually get shown on television. I don't renew hotel memberships and keep only one credit card now. I shall not renew my subscriptions to newspapers, because they are free on the Internet.

I don't encourage other people to do this, because if only 50,000 people switched like I did, Bt60 billion would be withdrawn from Bangkok's economy annually.

Coldcrab

Bangkok

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An opportunity for Israel to regain some lost sympathy

Now that the Palestinians have a unity government, the ball is in Israel's court. How to pass the ball back to the Palestinians? Just say they - the Israelis - are ready to sign on the dotted line with the Palestinians for a Palestinian state (with all the rights that go along with being an independent country) based on the pre-1967 borders and that, immediately after the document is signed, they will give US$40,000 [Bt1.43 million] to every living refugee and every descendant of a refugee who lost their homes behind the 1967 borders. The refugees could then decide whether to move to the West Bank or not.

Then the Palestinians hold a referendum, the Palestinian people overwhelmingly vote "yes", and the Palestinian unity government signs a "land for peace" deal with the Israelis on the White House lawn. If Hamas stood in the way of accepting this generous offer, then certainly the world's sympathies would switch to Israel, and the people of the world would believe it when Israel said it didn't have a partner for peace.

So, will Israel go back to its old ways, such as Ariel Sharon saying to Yassir Arafat: "We need two weeks of absolutely no violence before we can negotiate"? Or will the present government say that it won't negotiate with Hamas until it recognises Israel?

Has Israel officially recognised Palestine on pre-1967 borders? No. Then why should any Palestinian government recognise an Israel that has annexed East Jerusalem and built a wall that snakes through Palestinian land beyond the pre-1967 borders?

Come on, Israel! Do the right thing for once. Think seriously about "land for peace" and show the world it is not Israel that is blocking a peace settlement.

And regarding Iran, Israel could lead by example and allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors into its nuclear sites to dismantle its secret nuclear-weapons programme and sign up for a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East.

SD Rock

Bangkok