Oxford shenanigans increasingly amusing

Or is it possible that Jones proudly and naively copied his message to Thai friends sympathetic to anti-government groups and is now fearful of the consequences of his action?

AMUSED OXONIAN

Did Thaksin need assets freezing to save them?

Re: Thaksin seeks royal pardon and to bury hatchet, National Affairs, yesterday

By joking that perhaps he should thank the military junta for freezing his US$2 billion worth of assets in Thailand - otherwise they would have been lost through unwise stock investments by him - Thaksin Shinawatra has revealed so much about his questionable business acumen so far.

Late last year, the Straits Times in Singapore published a story saying Thaksin's assets at last count might not be worth more than $500 million - down from $5 billion just two years. Why?

According to the Straits Times, the British government, besides revoking Thaksin's visa, has also frozen assets worth $4.2 billion believed to belong to him. It now seems as if Thaksin has the big task of proving that the said assets, which are all in nominees' names, had been acquired lawfully. The former PM has never revealed before that he had such notable assets anywhere outside Thailand.

Thaksin's remaining, unfrozen assets, according to the Singapore newspaper, were lost through investments in oil, rice and gold futures. All these assets in commodities investments are at risk of being liquidated because they were bought at near-peak prices before the markets tumbled.

Most scary of all is that Thaksin never hedged or provided risk-insurance coverage for his investments as any prudent investor would have. Hence the catastrophic and senseless loss. One can only heave a sigh of relief that it was his money that was wasted.

CHAVALIT VAN

CHIANG MAI

Nana, lower Sukhumvit a dangerous place now

The Nana area and lower Sukhumvit Road are governed by taxi-mafia, corrupt policemen, pimps, sidewalk-vendors paying protection money, elephant mahouts and gangs of beggars.

Taxi-drivers can park wherever they want, even in prohibited areas. Begging elephants roam around and are abused in the dense traffic, while the police turn a blind eye to the mahouts.

Posters that tell the public not to feed the elephants because they don't belong in the city are removed within one day of being put up. Who does that?

Traffic-police in the booth at the Nana-crossing watch television, closed-circuit TV and press buttons for the traffic lights but are in no way interested in what happens on the very dangerous crossing itself. Sometimes, in case of an accident, they are even too lazy to offer assistance. Pedestrians are supposed to do that.

Motorcyclists, including the police, drive on the pavements and ignore the one-way rule in the streets.

Some bars are frequently visited by policemen in uniform, maybe to keep a watchful eye on their and their superiors' earnings, I suppose. What other purpose could their visits have?

This area needs to be cleaned of the mess caused by sheer lawlessness.

NICK

BANGKOK

Mixed messages will only confuse the farming sector

Re: 'Food output must increase rapidly to feed the world', Business, March 11.

This is not a simple task. During the recent energy crisis we encouraged farmers to grow energy crops to lessen dependence on imported fuel.

Now that we are sensing a food shortage, we are asking farmers to increase food supply. To an average farmer, this is a mixed message. I believe the issue of food versus fuel needs to be looked at as a whole package, not just simply doing one and ignoring the other.

Relevant government agencies and research institutions such as the Agricultural Department and Biotec are working on research to increase yield. However, the issue of food versus fuel needs the attention of all relevant players.

RAMJITTI INDARAPRASIRT

PATHUM THANI