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Published on November 2, 2007

 Though I am not a fan of Ronald Reagan, I wholeheartedly hailed his decisively swift action that ended the strike and brought air travel back to normal. All the strikers were fired without negotiation!

I hope that the Thai Transport Minister recalls what Reagan did to end the strike that paralysed air travel. The prime minister, a former Army chief, did not get involved. Neither did the Transport Minister, who is a retired admiral. Only his deputy minister was assigned to deal with the hardcore railways workers, who caused havoc throughout the country!

I wonder if this government has thought of leaving a legacy to this country after its brief reign. Think of the former DC National Airport. It was later renamed, Ronald Reagan International Airport.

Chamnong Watanagase

Bangkok

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Narrow-gauge railway can't cope with fast locos

Re: "Working on the railroad top priority", Streetwise, October 31.

The topic of Thai logistics (transportation) was fascinating and informative, but two bits of logic were uncoupled along the journey by the interviewee or your reporter. In this, the biggest narrow-gauge railway set in the world (the State Railway of Thailand), there is no relationship between the width of the track and the power of the locomotives. The very narrow Thai gauge means the unfortunate inherent instability of top-heavy, narrow-footed trains at speed. This is compounded by the extra hazzard (which we see every rainy season) of the foundations of the track being made more unstable by excessive drainage or floodwater. By all means get more powerful locos to pull heavy loads uphill - just don't let them go too fast down the other side.

We still see cement trucks on the roads and always will because they can do what trains cannot - deliver it direct to the customer. Both truck and train - and we the consumers, of course - will always suffer from skyrocketing oil prices.

Hopefully, Thailand will invest more in railways, which will always have the economic advantage in carrying heavy loads when speed does not matter. But logistically, speed of some degree always counts. When the Thai Post Office moved its business from rail to road over a decade ago to speed it up, that should have been a real wake-up whistle for the railways.

David Hardcastle

Chiang Mai

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Male workers outdo female counterparts

I've been a resident of this country for seven years and during that time, while going about both my wife's and my business, I've noticed a very obvious distinction between the male and female working class in Thailand. It's very clear that the majority of men seemingly have much more interest, energy, courtesy and information regarding their product or service and how they provide it to their customers, than female workers. There are, of course, exceptions, as I'm only making a generalisation. I must also point out that this observation does not in any way come from a sexist perspective.

I would be the first to support and advocate women in any role in which they can contribute to society, in whatever capacity, whether in the military, corporate world, or as prime minister. If Hilary Clinton wins the US presidency next year, I will be popping the champagne, so I'm far from being a male chauvinist. However, I find that whenever I need assistance from a worker in any type of business I patronise, the male employees provide much more information, are much more willing to assist me, and seem to have that little extra bounce in their step.

I'm not one of those men who will put up with terrible service from a Thai female employee simply because I'm smitten by their presence. I couldn't care less if you're Miss Universe, I just want to get information and see a genuine desire to help. Virtually everywhere, whenever I enter an establishment, female staff members are sitting behind the counter putting on make-up, watching a soap opera, or talking on the mobile phone. When they see I need help, they grudgingly get up, at times rolling their eyes back, as if to say "Oh, now I must actually have to serve this person". When they can't provide an answer to a simple question, they have to call over another female, who in turn saunters across the floor from her plate of food or from her nap behind the desk, and who also doesn't know the answer. Then the next female reluctantly saunters over who also has absolutely no clue, and this process starts to look like a line of falling dominoes.

I realise that asking questions to gain knowledge and information is a foreign concept to many in this country, so should I really be surprised? My wife and I get this all the time. It doesn't matter what type of business - restaurant, clothes store, agency, bank, airport, office - you name it, it's always there. I've never seen so much apathy from females, as in Thailand.

On the other side of the coin, men are mostly eager to help. If they don't know the answer, they will often run to find somebody that does. When we owned a hotel some years ago, numerous customers of ours also felt the same way, so we knew it wasn't just us. Anytime we have to go out and do business, we will always head straight for the man, knowing there will be a better chance of getting what we want or need.

In the future, if the general working population of women in this society puts as much effort into knowing the product, providing professional customer service and knowing how to solve problems as it does putting on make-up or chatting on the phone, maybe I could go over to the other side. But until then, No Way Jose!

Oestrogen Avoider

Bangkok

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Is this the worst road in the country?

Re: "Who's making a profit from the new bypass?" Letters, October 31.

Sam Munich, how right you are. What was the idea building all those flyovers [on the Chon Buri bypass to Rayong]? There's no reason as far as I can see. It seems there was a straight road and somebody said, "Let's build flyovers". It looks like money changing hands.

Where the bypasses meet the road, the work looks like it is already finished. So why can't they open them? This has to be one of the worst roads in Thailand. What the heck must tourists think when they are heading to Pattaya? It is now safer and quicker to drive through Chon Buri and on the old road to Pattaya, than it is on the new expressway.

Who got the big bonuses out of this deal?

Andy Grimwade

Bangkok

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Give Burmese resistance weapons to fight junta

The $96 per barrel price of oil is crippling the junta in Burma. The price of oil has nearly doubled since the beginning of 2007. Import cost for oil was originally budgeted at $200 million a few years ago. It rose to $500 million earlier this year and could reach $960 million by the end of this year. This is more devastating to the junta than US sanctions. Bad karma is visiting the generals due to the murder of monks.

Since China and India are providing war weapons to the junta, military assistance to the freedom fighters in Burma should be one of the options under active consideration. If provided with surplus US weapons and ammunition for 30 days of combat, we could gain effective control of Rangoon. We don't need US troops, just weapons to level the playing field. The monks are again demonstrating and we could have another national uprising soon due to oil prices.

Myint Thein

Bangkok

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