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Published on December 20, 2007

The veteran campaigner should be pleased if he receives free cards featuring the rivers and forests of the scenic North. These are reproductions of paintings by students in the northern region who won a recent painting contest.

The contest organiser was pleased to print the cards for the coming New Year's holiday but may now wonder whether Prakit would take them if he knew who organised the contest.

The big secret is that Philip Morris (Thailand) was the sponsor. That is the local arm of the US tobacco firm, which, alongside other tobacco companies, is being heavily attacked by Prakit's foundation for producing cigarettes that are harmful to health.

But the cards are pretty indeed and do not bear the name of the sponsor.

EIA confusion

What would you need if you were financially capable of building a condominium?

The simple answer would be a construction licence and an environmental-impact assessment (EIA) that guarantees your project would not be environmentally hazardous to the local community. But for developers wanting to erect condos upcountry, it is important they realise that each province can add special requirements to any environmental assessment.

If asked, M Talay would say it should have been aware of the special requirements of Prachuap Khiri Khan. This is what happened when the company tried to obtain approval for a condominium in the tourist resort of Hua Hin.

M Talay director MR Damrong Diskul did not bother to hide his surprise when sharing his experience with reporters.

He said as part of the environmental-assessment process, the company was asked if the Malibu condominium would be located in a tsunami-prone spot. The province wanted to know in case the company needed to inform buyers of the fact.

Damrong was dumbfounded. His understanding was that environmental impacts were limited to something that causes damage to the environment: garbage, wastewater, dust etc.

Who can possibly know where a tsunami will strike?

Probably, Prachuap Khiri Khan wants to be the first to know that, so it can inform residents in the area in advance and thus avoid a catastrophe like in 2004.

achara_d@nationgroup.com