Tesco Lotus's lawsuits call for unified public response

The Nation

As a Thai, I am outraged at Tesco's disgusting behaviour. The company is a multinational with great market powers; however, I believe that such actions should draw criticisms from the Thai public. It is time that we give up our passive lifestyles. Someone should propose a boycott of Tesco Lotus.

Pat

Bangkok

----------------------------------------

Egat will push through its nuclear plan no matter what

Nophakhun Limsamarnphun's article assessing Thailand's nuclear power plant aspirations ("Nuclear plan looks sound; political will must follow", Opinion Features, April 19) ends with, "All in all, the blueprint appears sound. But the big question is whether the government will have the political will to get the project off the ground come 2010". How did he come up with that conclusion? A look at the facts indicates that a truer statement would be, "The blueprint appears unsound, but there's no question the government is eager to get the project off the ground". Egat is Thailand's government-run electricity-generating entity and is intent on railroading the projects through. Egat is purposefully not revealing to the public where its desired four nuclear plants would be situated. Nor surprisingly, it's waiting as long as it possibly can to announce these sites.

The article also makes no mention of costs for fuel, which are zooming higher by the week. Worldwide supplies are flat, yet demand will skyrocket. Where will Thailand stand in the queue, when there's fierce competition for the stuff from America, China, Japan, India, and the EU? For details on all that, go see http://sabaibooks.com/nuke1.pdf.

Countries with 50 years of nuclear experience are dumping nuclear power in favour of "concentrated solar" power plants which are cleaner, safer, more efficient and cheaper (1 baht per Kw). Plus, solar's fuel is free, and there's no radioactive waste to deal with.

Ken Albertsen

Chiang Rai

----------------------------------------

Safer driving practices needed year-round

I have read various comments concerning the loss of life caused annually at the Songkran holidays and although restricting alcohol sales may have an effect, will this reduce the resulting deaths? People aware of any impending ban on alcohol sales will just stock up prior to the event. Surely there are other measures that need to be taken generally every day of the year and enforced more stringently during the festivals.

 Firstly, the Transport Ministry has to make it 100 per cent mandatory for all motorcycle drivers and their passengers to wear crash helmets. In addition, the number of passengers on a motorcycle should be restricted to one, not the two or three that you see generally upcountry!

During the lead up to the Songkran holidays, there is a great movement of people racing home and many travel at night.

Another common practice is for a 4X4, or a similar vehicle, to carry up to 10 people in the rear of the vehicle, with no goods leaving Bangkok, but fully laden with rice and products from home on the return journey. They even have their tailgate lowered to enable extra goods to be loaded. There is no protection for these people and the vehicle must be well over the weight at which it can be driven safely, most certainly when coming back to work and again at night.

It would be interesting to know of all the deaths over Songkran, how many involved people under the influence of alcohol, how many involved poorly maintained vehicles, and how many involved motorcycles.

Phil Oakley

Bangkok

Send us your views in an instant!

E-mail your opinion, with 'Letters to the Editor' in

the subject box, to:

letters@nationgroup.com