Be guided by your own conscience

Letter-writer Noppadon was disheartened by monks who do not stand up against graft, corruption, prostitution and other vices. Why then should he be so opinionated in fighting society's vices?

My advice to him is simple. Just believe in William Penn's saying that "we pass through this world but once, so do now any good you can do, and show now any kindness you can show, for we shall not pass this way again".

Whenever others dishearten me, that passage comforts me enough to ignore the others and do whatever you are capable of doing either through your personal ability or your official position to help in a small or big way in putting our society right, since we may not have that chance again in the future.

SONGDEJ PRADITSMANONT

BANGKOK

Civil rights as a political pawn

In separate letters on March 6, C Croft and GW Farrow make good points. Croft is right that it's hypocritical for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to heap praise on the new right-wing government in Israel, which has made it clear they intend to do everything America is opposed to (such as expanding settlements) and thus make peace impossible.

Then Farrow notes that while America condemns the human-rights abuses in Sudan they look the other way when Israel commits atrocities against the Palestinians. To be fair, the Sudanese government is even more barbaric than the Israeli government, but the basic principle is the same, which is that America cannot be taken seriously when it only supports human rights when it's politically convenient to do so.

ERIC BAHRT

PATTAYA

Left behind in the quest for utilities

We live at Moo Tasuit, Chiang Rai Province and have been here now 10 years. For 10 years we have complained about low voltage and no government water to no avail. All the moobans in the area have government water and have had for the last five years, but our village can't seem to get their act together to get it in to the houses. On the electricity, they keep adding more houses to the system but do not put big enough wires in to carry the extra load, so in turn our fridges burn out, electric tools burn up, water pumps burn up, and with pulling the electricity through the meter versus easy flow our electric bill is very high.

GARRETT DE KONING

CHIANG RAI