Double-pricing policy is flagrantly racist

My children were looking forward to the visit. On arrival at the premises we learned that it is Bt1,500 for family entry.

That is, if you are a Thai family.

For farangs the entry fee is double that, Bt3,000.

I have never seen a more flagrantly racist policy, which is an insult to all foreigners and should not be allowed.

How would Thai people feel if they visited Disneyland or Ocean Park in Hong Kong and there was one price for locals and a double price for overseas visitors?

The Thai tourism authority needs to stop this travesty, and I hope foreign visitors stop going to Siam Ocean World until entrance-fee parity is achieved for locals and visitors alike.

JAMES MIDDLETON

HONG KONG

Democratic election is no proof of merit

It is good to see that the EU and the UN support the democratically elected government of Thailand. So if a government is democratically elected, then the EU and the UN would support it.

Can the EU or the UN be trusted, to stick to these noble ideas? I do not think so: what about Burma, North Korea, sanctions against Iran, all democratically elected governments.

If a country has democratically elected governments, it does not indicate that the country's leaders are good. In some countries, the elected government is corrupt, allows the killing or incarceration of innocent civilians. What about the killing of innocent civilians in the South of Thailand, stacking them in the back of trucks and letting them suffocate. the extrajudicial killing of people suspected of being involved in drugs, government officials accused of being involved in corruption, such as the TAT international film festival?

We must remember that Adolf Hitler was elected by the people of Germany in a democratic election. Then he let the brown-shirts loose to steal and murder in the name of government. Now Pol General Salang wants to turn the brown-shirts loose to support the government, which already has the blood of innocent Thais on its hands, a government run by the brother-in-law of a convicted criminal.

TOM KLONG 3

BANGKOK

Elite is a wolf in sheep's clothing

Borwornsak Uwanno, former cabinet secretary under Thaksin and former dean of Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Law, said if the Upper House is elected, rural voters - who constitute the majority of the electorate - would select only politicians, leaving no space for bureaucrats and the military.

Borwornsak cited the institute's recent survey which revealed that two-thirds of the middle-class people questioned said they prefer economic well-being to democracy.

Unlike in the West, Borwornsak said the Thai middle class sometimes resorts to undemocratic means in its own interest, such as during the events leading up to the September 19 coup and their support for the coup-makers afterwards. He also warned drafters not to give too many rights to ordinary people.

Reconciliation? Total capitulation to the authoritarian "elite"!

JOHN FRANCIS LEE

CHIANG RAI

Focus on the threat, not the wardrobe

How can this be an issue? I just don't get it. With all the challenges the Unites States faces why on earth would Governor Palin's wardrobe be and issue, especially because they are not really her clothes but donated or auctioned.

Why isn't the liberal media more concerned that Barack Obama is nothing more than a terrorist masquerading as a democrat and his running mate Joe Biden is a zero who has proved to be a bumbling fool?

He can't seem to say the right thing at the right time. The democratic ticket scares the daylights out of me, and if they manage to win, all Americans will be eating gruel, and it won't be in Russia, but right in the US of A.

THEODORE CARL SODERBERG

SAN FRANCISCO