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Published on August 31, 2007

Each of these bags comes into our life for as long as it takes us to go home and throw them in the trash - where they spend the next how many thousand years breaking down. The giving and taking of them is totally unconscious. Try refusing the bag and see what happens. At first nobody will notice because they're too busy mindlessly stuffing your purchase into a bag. Then a surprised look will come over them as if to say, "What do mean, you don't want a bag? Everyone wants a bag."

When I've travelled outside the city I can be in the remotest part of the country or on the most beautiful beach and there's my friend the plastic bag: floating in the sea, blowing across a rice paddy or stuck in a fence. I personally use a backpack to carry my purchases. For the rest of the population there are simple cloth bags available for next to nothing at any hypermart. "Mai sai tung" is Thai for "No bag, thanks". Try it and start a revolution.

Charlie Stampfer

Bangkok

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New adjective required for city PR campaign

Re: "Bangkok set to go on a charm offensive", Business, August 30.

All I can say is good luck to Bangkok Governor Apirak [Kosayodhin] on his "Charming Bangkok" campaign. If I searched all day in a lexicon for an adjective to describe Bangkok, "charming" would be my last choice. Bangkok, in no remote way, could ever be described as charming. It's a filthy, dangerous and downright ugly city with trash strewn everywhere; black water canals; unattractive concrete apartment and office buildings; a dilapidated city bus system that constantly fuels the already unhealthy air pollution; virtually no sidewalks due to their obstruction by food vendors and motorcycle taxis; and a plethora of miserable stray dogs everywhere.

Charming? Repellent, undesirable and uninviting seem more appropriate terms to describe this city, but then they wouldn't work too well in a PR presentation attempting to attract tourists to a place that can ultimately only leave them feeling duped and disappointed.

KJ Rosser

Bangkok

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Suppliers don't like the retail squeeze

Re: "Mom-and-pop protesters may have been paid to act", Letters, August 30.

 I quite agree with Jaytee. The lobby supporting mom-and-pop stores in Thailand and other countries against the invasion of the superstores is hardly likely to come from the mom-and-pop stores themselves, who have little time or money to spend on protesting.

But there is another party here that stands to lose a lot more: the large grocery suppliers - the Nestles, Procter & Gambles, Unilevers et cetera, whose prices are being squeezed lower and lower by this new generation of discount retailer stores.

Before the coming of large superstores, the wholesale grocery suppliers had a captive market of thousands of small, helpless mom-and-pop stores who, individually, had no buying power and had to accept the high prices for goods being charged by those suppliers.

However, the big discount retailers - Tesco Lotus, Makro, Big C and Carrefour - have huge buying power and are able to extract the lowest possible prices from the biggest suppliers.

The lobby against the superstores is certainly pervasive and well funded in Thailand and I suspect that most of those funds are coming from the parties that stand to lose the most from the coming of discount retail to Thailand - the suppliers.

Jonathan Peter

Pathum Thani

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EU ought to clean up its own house first

Regarding the Thai prime minister's refusal of the European Union's offer to oversee the forthcoming election, Surayud might just be on to something. There are elections and referendums within the EU that would provide lots of work for the EU's Electoral Commission, except that they won't be happening. Before his appointment as British PM, Gordon Brown made a clear promise to hold a referendum in Britain on the EU Treaty, which envisages the transfer of a great deal of power to Brussels away from the EU's national governments. Now he has said there is "no need for a referendum".

The EU Treaty is just the EU Constitution under a new name, as Angela Merkel of Germany has openly admitted. The reason that Brown is now denying democratic procedures to the British public is simply because the EU Treaty/Constitution has already been roundly rejected by the electorates of France and the Netherlands, and would very likely be rejected by the British, too.

There is plenty for the EU's bureaucrats to oversee and clean up in their own backyard before patronisingly offering to do the same for Thailand.

Barry Ward

Bangkok

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EC should crack down on campaign posters

Some new rules for the Electoral Commission to implement:

1. An automatic ban for any candidates whose posters block the view of pedestrians or motorists. On the grounds that if they don't care for people's safety on the road, how could they care for them when they manage the country.

2. All candidates must demonstrate that their posters have been recycled under proper conditions. Again, if they can't do this, then they obviously don't care about the Kingdom's environment.

3. The fewer posters and the more policies a candidate has, the more credits he gets from the Electoral Commission.

Peter Emblin

Bangkok

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Burmese protesters deserve more support

The Burmese Women's Union (BWU), which was founded by women activists of the 1988 pro-democracy movement and consisted of different ethnic women, is proud of and wholeheartedly supports the courageous action and bravery of '88 Generation female students and other women activists inside Burma.

The BWU strongly condemns the heavy-handed attacks, arrests and crackdown by junta paramilitary groups.

In light of the current situation, the BWU calls for and recommends the following actions:

That the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) immediately declare the USDA and its paramilitary personnel known as Pyithu Swann Arr Shin as an unlawful association and abolish it because it instigates violence in the country.

That the SPDC honour the Geneva Convention and allow peaceful demonstrations by all citizens of Burma and stop using violent means to crack down on demonstrators.

That the SPDC honour, as a member state, articles proclaimed in CEDAW [Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women] and take action to ensure women's peaceful participation and expression of their concern.

The BWU calls on the Burma Women's Affairs Federation: To protect the rights of women to freely express their concerns and to protect the safety of women protesters. To take every measure to reveal the names of violent attackers and force law suits against them.

The BWU demands and calls on the UN secretary-general: To take appropriate action under his mandate declared under UNSC Resolution 1325. To immediately send Mr Gambari to Burma to prevent further violence instigated against peaceful protesters.

The BWU demands and calls on Asean: To condemn the SPDC for recent arrests and violence against peaceful protesters and its violations of the Asean declaration to stop violence against women. To demand the Burmese military regime to release all political prisoners without delay.

The BWU demands and calls on the international community: To condemn and denounce the SPDC for its violence. To raise concern over the well-being and safety of current detainees and to call for their immediate release. To call for the immediate release of all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. To pressure your governments to push the SPDC to solve the country's problems through meaningful and constructive dialogue in a peaceful manner.

The Burmese Women's Union

Bangkok

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