If you dress them nicely, will they perform better?

Normally, once we step into such an office, we don't think much about how the employees are dressed but about the service they can provide. Therefore, it sounds strange to learn that Lampang has launched a campaign to have government staff dressed in northern Lanna costumes.

This became news through the People's Alliance for Democracy, which accused the Lampang authorities of abusing their power. Deputy governor Samart Loyfa defended the campaign yesterday, saying that it is "voluntary" and aimed at preserving Lanna culture. The workers are encouraged to don Lanna costumes every day of the week except Wednesday.

What if all the provinces adopted the "voluntary" costume campaign? Would staff in southern offices wear sarongs to work? Staff in the North may resort to mor hom shirts. In the Northeast would they wear costumes donned by "Serng Katip" dancers (the dance with sticky-rice containers)?

In trendy Bangkok, they'd wear fashionable long-sleeved fitted blouses, regardless of the heat. What should staff in Kanchanaburi wear? Given the closeness to the Burmese border where tribal cultures are mixed, it'd be tough to choose which costume best represented the provincial culture.

Leaving that aside, we are hopeful that if this campaign were launched nationwide, government staff would be in a better mood to serve. Ordinary people like us pay more attention to service than local costumes.

Upping the wages of sin

What are you doing this weekend?

I plan to glue my eyes to an evening soap opera on Channel 7 called "Dao Puan Din" (Tainted Star).

 Not that this is my favourite. I want to watch it on a tip from a women's rights network which said that during this weekend, a character would be raped by 12 men and go mad as a result.

The network said in a statement that it was concerned how society would react to the scene. A grave danger is looming if people welcome the scene, considered to be punishment for the character who has been mean to everyone around her.

Now that is worrying. When a man is arrested for a murder and not punished as severely as expected, people might say, "If I were the victim's next of kin, I would sneak into the man's house and kill him myself."

Now, before committing anything dodgy, I'll think twice. Who knows, in a society more tolerant of violence, I might irritate people who'd resort to painful means in revenge. Ouch!