Phone-in a sinister trend that must be checked

Whatever the real motive behind the British government's revocation of Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife's visas is -- the former leader's eccentric politicking has played a key role in causing his own muddle.

Thaksin's phone-in speech to a gathering of his supporters last Saturday was an unusual move to create disunity and, possibly, conflagration in this country. Thaksin's latest move, if allowed to go unchecked, will set a precedent for him to use this tactic again and again to further divide the nation beyond salvation. This sinister trend must somehow be stopped. Thaksin's eccentric moves have led him to a difficult situation. Alternatively, if he had chosen to stay; faced the Ratchadaphisek land-deal verdict; and accepted the consequences, he would have made himself a martyr.

Now he has only himself to blame for his awkward predicament.

CHAVALIT VAN

CHIANG MAI

Thanks to Britain, it was an uplifting day

Re: UK cancels visas of Thaksin, wife

The cancellation of Thaksin and Potjaman Shinawatra's entry visas, decided while the couple were outside England and notified to airlines yesterday, is the best news I've read all year. It took them some time to come to this conclusion but I would guess staging the phone-in from Hong Kong to provoke unrest in a foreign country would have been the last straw.

Thank goodness they are no longer welcome in my country. I really did wonder whether the government would act at all. Historical, legendary gesture. Almost as uplifting as an Obama victory. Well done Britain.

JAMES GROVEWAY

BANGKOK

Does Obama's 'change' call hide a dangerous agenda?

Regarding the article "First black president still beyond belief" by Evelyn Myrie, November 6, 2008:

While many seem enamoured at the ground-breaking election of the first, black U.S. president, few seem cognisant of the inherent danger in Barack Obama's opposition to the fundamental "right to life" of every human being.

Unknown to many, Sen. Barack Obama's core beliefs and record fundamentally disagrees with his nation's founding principles that are enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and which states that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Obama is governed by the Marxist belief that "the end justifies the means." As a result he vigorously supports the systematic murdering of innocent children through abortion and embryonic stem cell research as if such people were a sub-class of human beings. In 2002, as an Illinois legislator, he supported infanticide by vetoing the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, which would have protected babies who were accidentally born alive during attempts to abort them. An estimated 1.5 million innocent children are murdered each year in the U.S. through the Obama adopted policy of abortion. Without the right to life no other human right makes sense.

Obama also fully supports contraceptives and homosexuality which thwarts the natural generation of life and which is the antithesis of the family. Rather than favouring prayer in schools, he advocates the distribution of condoms. He will bring to the U.S. constitution same-sex marriage and the adoption of children by gay couples.

Obama is a false prophet who preaches "change" and "hope" while pursuing a culture of death. Though the slogan "change" is usually invoked to signify something positive, in this case it hides a different agenda - one which is very dangerous for America and the world.

PAUL KOKOSKI

ONTARIO. CANADA