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Published on March 26, 2008

Years ago, blouses came in three sizes: small (S), medium (M) and large (L).

Like everything, evolution has changed the female physique. At first, they grew larger because of the introduction of high-calorie food like pizza. Suddenly on offer were extra large (XL) blouses. Once women's sizes grew even more horizontal, there appeared a size called extra extra large (XXL).

But as women became more aware of excess weight and good dietary habits, their sizes shrunk, and now on the shelves were small small (SS) blouses. Just recently we learned of the advent of a small small small (SSS) size, particularly for university students who love to look extra petite. Being tiny makes them more adorable, like tiny dolls are for kids. People in this government know this principle well. In designing a new small and medium loan programme, they have applied the science of blouses.

First, the programme is abbreviated to SML - the original sizes of women's blouses.

Then, more surprisingly, this SML programme that promises loans to villages has categorised them into six sub-categories: M, L, S1, S2, S3 and XL.

Just like women's blouses!

And in detail, they are also like various blouse sizes. The sub-categories are defined in accordance with the size of the population of each village.

The smallest, S3, are villages with a population of 151-250. They are entitled to loans of Bt150,000. In this sub-category, there are 4,800 villages.

The L sub-category are those with a population of 1,001-1,500. L villages can tap funds of Bt300,000.

In between are M villages with a 551-1,000 population. Falling into the category are 36,000 villages which are entitled to Bt250,000 in loans each.

While women are focusing more on losing weight so that they can buy smaller blouses, the villagers want the opposite. Certainly, if their population grows, they are eligible for more funds.

Soon villagers may launch campaigns to draw friends and relatives from other villages to enlarge their population.

Whatever. The categorisation shows how well people in this government understand the world of women's blouses.

achara_d@nationgroup.com

Achara Deboonme

The Nation