Mind those 'green shoots' that keep popping up

Like Chauncey Gardiner, played by Peter Sellers in the film "Being There", some people are now using the same Chaunceyisms such as "we are out of the woods" and can see the "green shoots of recovery" to describe the global economy.

The article began: "Although some indicators suggest the worst might be over for the Thai economy, a sustainable turnaround will depend on when a global economic recovery starts to take root ..."

Start to take root? Recently, one of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's most trusted ministers, Lady Vadera, was under fire for saying that she too could see a few "green shoots" of economic recovery at a time when Barclays announced that it was to cut 2,100 jobs, Jaguar Land Rover said it was losing 450 staff, and the music chain Zavvi announced that it would close another 18 stores leaving 353 people jobless.

Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, said: "Baroness Vadera is clearly living in a parallel universe if she thinks the economy is beginning to recover."

Or maybe she was merely overusing a vogueish Chaunceyism? Aren't we all?

ARUN SINGH

BANGKOK

Warnings falling on deaf ears in Burma

The world has spoken loud and clear, but no one should fool themselves into believing the Burmese junta have taken the slightest notice. Does anyone believe the junta, which wants Aung San Suu Kyi locked up for the foreseeable future, is affected by the fact that it is the following: author of the 1988 massacre in which more than 10,000 (an estimate from the regime's intelligence) people were gunned down in Rangoon; author of the Depayin atrocity in 2003 when hundreds of democracy supporters were clubbed or stabbed to death; and author of the suppression in 2007 when even monks were violently killed?

Asean has spoken but now it must act. The member countries have enough leverage on the regime, through trade, to set the alarm bells ringing in Naypidaw (the junta's glitzy jungle hideaway) and wake them up from their all too cosy, tyrannical routine.

Asean can start taking sanctions seriously and see what reaction they get from Burma, but don't even start blowing smoke about humanitarian concerns for the general population because those leaders know full well that virtually none of the receipts to the junta for trade with Asean are spent on the people.

For too long, Asean has been complicit in grand theft and acts of murder by the junta. This has to stop.

JULIAN PIENIAZEK

THAI FREE BURMA/PEACE FOR BURMA

Thailand must show some gumption and take a stand

Re: "Burmese people need outside help to achieve freedom", Opinion, May 26

I read the article with a sense of pervading guilt as the reasoned and balanced arguments as well as pleas from Dr Thaung Htun unfolded in his well-crafted piece. That someone who was so directly affected by the present situation in Burma could be so reasonable whilst addressing the inaction by the world community was truly humbling.

I'm glad that I am in the latter years of my life and have no dependants, because I do not care for the world that is now developing. There is little of merit to cling to. In an orgy of greed, the financial world has all but imploded. My own parliament in the UK has been exposed as a rat's nest of fiscal abuse, and there is scant leadership of any merit shown in the world. Indeed there is not much left to look up to and admire.

I have no motivation to be reasonable about Burma, so let me be frank; the country is run by a band of murderous thugs. I ashamed that the West has done nothing of value to aid the Burmese people and have simply acquiesced to the comfortable lie that engaging with the regime is the best way to secure change. Do we engage with criminals to get them to change their nefarious ways? No, we do not, we sling them in prison.

I am not sure what legacy the current PM hopes to get from this lame-duck government, but were he to take a principled stand as chair of Asean and condemn the shenanigans unfolding in Burma, which clearly fly in the face of the Asean charter, he would be seen as a man of some principle and not just another shallow, self-serving politician.

JOHN DE LAURENT

BANGKOK