Cartoon offensive to Iran's president and people

It is a great shame for a newspaper such as The Nation to take sides with the enemies of Iran and the oppressed people of Palestine by publishing such a biased and insulting picture together with a distortion of the message of the Iranian president on the occasion of the New Year. This is not only an insult to our president but also an insult and show of disrespect to the cultured Iranian people with 3,000 years of civilisation.

The Cultural Centre of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran strongly condemns the action and insists that The Nation prevents such immoral, insulting action in the future.

MOHAMMAD TAMHIDI

CULTURAL ATTACHE|EMBASSY OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

Hotel Windsor Suites explains fire door policy

On behalf of the management and staff of our hotel, I would like to extend our sincerest apology to Mr Kilowatt (Letters, January 8), regarding the incident that occurred during his visit to us. We would like to apologise if we caused him inconvenience and made him feel uncomfortable when he wasn't able to get through a fire exit door that he mistakenly entered. We also would like to express our regret that we weren't able to properly explain the matter to him when he came to report the incident to our staff and looked for our security personnel.

We want to take this opportunity to explain why the incident occurred. We intentionally locked the door from the inside to usher people to the exit door at the ground floor in case of emergency and to prevent them from running to other floors. We strongly advise people to use fire exits only during emergencies and do not recommend they be used as passageways to other areas [during normal times]. The fire exit door would only lead people to the ground level or rooftop. The precautionary measures in our hotel and the fire protection devices we have installed follow international standards to ensure guests' safety.

We do understand that the incident occurred due to insufficient signage. We are adding more signage on all car park levels to ensure that people find their way correctly to the hotel lobby. Also, notice boards are being set up to make sure that information regarding the use of fire exits will be properly disseminated.

BUNDIT BOSEREEWONGE

GENERAL MANAGER, HOTEL WINDSOR SUITES

BANGKOK

"Elite Card" was a scam from the beginning

Re: "Shutting out foreigners when we most need them", Letters, January 20.

I'm sorry but I could not help but have a wry smile when I read of the plight of TW. If he had as much sense as he has money, he would have seen immediately that the "Thailand Elite Card" programme was dead in the water from the beginning. Never mind "This situation will kill the programme's reputation", the only reputation it had was a dubious, dwindling one.

Did TW not know that this little scheme was the brainchild of a certain Thaksin Shinawatra and that he estimated it would attract 100,000 members? The 2,500 members figure quoted tells us all we need to know about the success the programme has been. And sadly for TW and other "influential and wealthy people", any amount of whining and wailing will not revive this pompous business calamity. So I'm afraid for the time being TW, you'll have to settle for cattle class like the rest of us who don't have fortunes to protect us from everyday reality.

A WARNER

BANGKOK

Shackled prisoner won't help Thailand's image

I don't know whether Thailand cares about its international image or not, but regardless of the merits or demerits of the case against him, the spectacle of Harry Nicolaides shuffling through prison corridors weighed down by chains and leg irons, broadcast throughout the world by international television, is not likely to enhance Thailand's reputation for humane treatment of prisoners, nor for enlightened jurisprudence.

ST

BANGKOK