Learning lessons from the death of a megastar

The coincidence that he should die within hours of another world famous celebrity is also not unprecedented. Mother Teresa died within 24 hours of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997, and in 1992 British comedy icons Benny Hill and Frankie Howerd died on the same weekend in April of that year.

The death of Farrah Fawcett from a relatively swift and often fatal disease we hear of daily is something we can relate to as someday it could happen to us. But Michael Jackson's slow deterioration despite his fame and fortune from the heights of pop mega stardom into a miasma of increasingly bizarre and weirdly puerile behaviour is profoundly puzzling to us as it's something we can't even |imagine and are unlikely to ever experience.

We are saddened by the loss of both of these celebrities but perhaps the story of Michael Jackson's latter years should make us a little more satisfied with our more normal, mundane and uncelebrated lives. That is part of his legacy too.

BRIAN ELKEY

BANGKOK

PM should move on conflict of interest offenders

Sixty-six MPs are being investigated by the Election Commission (EC) for holding shares in media businesses or in firms granted state concessions of a monopolistic nature, thus creating a conflict of interest. The EC's already disqualified 16 senators for exactly the same offence. At least some MPs will probably be in a similar situation as the guilty senators and disqualified. If that event comes about, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva must set an example of good governance and immediately move to have the guilty removed from office, rather than wait for a Constitution Court order.

In other words, follow the example of Tory and Labour leaders, who immediately vowed, without waiting for a court verdict, to ban any MP guilty of filing false expense claims to Parliament from standing for re-election under their banner - and this was for relatively small sums. My rationale is simple: "Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law" (Justice Louis Brandeis).

The MPs knew, or should have known, their holdings, as well as the law. If you, who campaigned on a platform of political reform, flinch when the test comes, what hope have we? As Shakespeare put it: "To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, that thy canst not then be false to any man."

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

BURIN KANTABUTRA

BANGKOK

Teachers' responsibility to disabled students

Re: School says it can't handle disabled girl, National Affairs, June 19

I am utterly appalled by the attitude of the teachers at Ban Khoklam Klangtamyae School in Khon Kaen.

They must know that they are condemning this girl to a life of social isolation and poverty.

What example are they setting? That disabled people are too much trouble and should stay at home.

So much for friendship and helping the less fortunate. These teachers and the principal of this school need to find different careers.

This unfortunate child has already been abandoned once by her parents and now by professionals who are supposed to help and support her.

I had expected better from Thai |teachers.

ALEX FOX

SAMUT SAKHON