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Published on July 7, 2007

The implications of the new television ratings could be much more far-reaching than your article suggested. They would mean that the news has to be classified as "nor". For a start, reports of the unrest in southern Thailand, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are about violence and often show people with weapons, which the ratings stipulate must not be shown after 4pm on weekdays. Another problem with the news is the prohibition of scenes including physical contact. There go the films of leaders of Western countries greeting each other on official visits or at international gatherings. I saw footage of a photo-op of George W Bush and Vladimir Putin recently. It was full of handshakes and hands round the shoulder. Definitely forbidden. As for children's cartoons, they are full of violence.

But wait, I have not finished yet. There are some programmes about life in various areas of the country. Often these involve the hosts buying fresh food or meals at local markets etc. Be careful! My experience suggests that in the act of exchanging the products and the money the hands of the buyers and sellers often touch, albeit momentarily and unintentionally. But that would bring a "nor" rating and restrict the times of presentation!

Will there be anything left that can be shown at a time other than the middle of the night?

Gareth Clayton

Bangkok

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Actions of 'spoiled rich kid' simply inexcusable

Re: "Beauty queen's son slapped with murder charge", News, July 6.

I hope that this guy will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. It seems obvious he is some rich little spoiled kid who was never taught to behave. His actions are inexcusable under any circumstances, whether he was drunk, on drugs or sober. I don't care how much money his parents have, or who they know. He has to be made responsible for what he has done.

What kind of parents would give their kid who was having severe mental problems a Mercedes anyway?

Jim Brown

Bangkok

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Lauding of Thaksin leaves a bad taste in Thai mouths

Re: "Justice system ruined: Thaksin", News, July 6.

Shame on Takushoku University in Tokyo for giving credibility to Thaksin by allowing him to work as a visiting professor. What could he possibly teach? Takushoku University has become just another media mouthpiece. It has provided another opportunity to be seen in the press for Thaksin, the mastermind of media manipulation.

The international community and foreign media have not done their research and have been more than ignorant in understanding the real struggle that Thailand went through during Thaksin's former rule. Wasn't it enough of an indicator when the members of the Election Commission under Thaksin were proven corrupt or that Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai Party was convicted of fraud in the last general election, which Thaksin keeps on calling democratic?

While most Thais are just waiting for the full information on Thaksin and cronies' crimes to surface, Thaksin, living in a self-imposed exile, continues to cry wolf to the international community, and they keep listening.

Carolyn

Bangkok

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Passenger calls bus trip a ride on the 'green hell'

Re: "BMTA action plan needed to cut down on city bus accidents", Letters, July 6.

I agreed with the writer's comments that the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority doesn't do enough to regulate city bus concessionaires. The green minibuses are not safe to run in Bangkok, period. The larger white-blue buses are not in much better shape, shooting out black soot and blue smoke due to being neglected intentionally for profit without proper maintenance! They are poisoning our air, and the food and drink sold by street vendors. The drivers drive like maniacs most of the time, and the fare-collectors are often rude. I want to ask those in power and high places to take the green minibuses to work for a week and see what I face every day. First-hand experience counts the most.

On the other hand, the drivers and fare-collectors of the red buses are very polite and professionally dressed and remind the passengers what the next stop is.

Brainstorming is not needed; any rudimentarily educated person knows what the root causes are. I have faith in the Old Ginger government. They have accomplished much in a short time.

I take a green bus to work every morning. Some days I get off halfway before my destination and take another bus, because my six-foot frame does not fit the minibus very well when it is fully packed. I call the green buses khiao narok ("the green-hell") and the blue ones pisaj nam ngoen ("the blue devil"). This is what poor Bangkokians face every day to and from work.

Surasak Piputtana

Bangkok

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UN convention to target nuclear terrorism

Re: "Nuclear future 'a dangerous pipe dream' ", Opinion, July 6.

This article by John Vidal emphasises a fundamental concern generated by nuclear expansion. The author cogently refers to the fact that society has to decide whether or not the risks of proliferation and nuclear terrorism in a world with many nuclear-power reactors are acceptable. However, he fails to inform the readers about the 2005 International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, adopted under the auspices of the United Nations after seven years of negotiations. It is expected to enter into force today after its ratification by 22 of the 115 countries that have signed it. This universal legal instrument has 28 articles and is designed to prevent and suppress nuclear terrorism, bring to justice planners and perpetrators and promote active cooperation in sharing information and providing assistance. It calls for the extradition of alleged terrorists and large collaboration in criminal investigations.

The convention covers a great variety of acts and possible targets, including nuclear power plants and nuclear reactors. It contains detailed provisions about crisis cases and post-crisis situations, by rendering nuclear material safe through the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), based in Vienna. The three main pillars of the IAEA's mission in the nuclear field are safety and security; science and technology; safeguards and verification. The IAEA's role in the implementation of the above mentioned convention is a challenging one.

Ioan Voicu

Bangkok

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International precedent set for empowering locals

According to The Guardian newspaper, in a potentially dramatic extension of direct democracy, councils in the United Kingdom will have to hold ballots before deciding where money should be targeted. It would mean that, for the first time, people could direct cash to areas that concern them most, such as parks, curbing antisocial behaviour, targeting drug trouble spots or cleaning up litter.

The idea comes from Latin America. It began in 1989 in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre but has swept through the region and some of the more radically led cities. Thanks in part to the success of the scheme, the UN has nominated Porto Alegre the Brazilian city with the "best quality of life".  The new UK communities secretary wants every neighbourhood to have control of some of the council's cash within five years. Communities will be asked to take control of council budgets through local debates, neighbourhood votes and public town meetings.

The democratic system in Britain is a long way ahead of Thailand's, but this direct democracy evidently works in Latin America, so I wonder whether our next democratic government might consider it.

Mr Bird

Chiang Mai

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Size not why Britain was dubbed 'Great'

Re: "Britain's 'greatness' derived from geography", Letters, July 5.

Robert Boylan is quite right to point out that the "Great" in Great Britain has to do with mere size not general, mind-boggling importance, unlike its usage in, say, Catherine the Great, who was not in point of fact larger than the average autocrat of her day.

It was not bestowed, however, because the island is the largest in the British Isles - though it is - but to distinguish it from continental Brittany, where many Britons in the years after the invasion fled from brutal Saxons like me, thus avoiding becoming Welsh.

In any case, as an Irish friend of mine observes, it is surely more correct in these levelling days to refer to the insular grouping in question as the Northwest European Archipelago. Boylan's surname leads me to think he might not be averse to that suggestion.

Simon Johnstone

Bangkok