Need to cool Bangkok's|giant concrete stove

In very cold nights they even slept on the top of this concrete construction. In super-hot Bangkok the same phenomena occur unintended because the city mainly consists of concrete buildings and asphalt roads which are excellent heat accumulators.

How are you Bangkokians going to survive in the future? You seem not to like parks and gardens that could moderate the local climate and bring some fresh air. The only things that count seem to be collecting money by building huge shopping centres on every available piece of land. Instead of Siam Paragon and the other big moneymaking buildings in the area you could have created a fantastic "Bangkok central park" as a green lounge in the central strolling area of the city. This central park would have been wall in wall with Wat Pathum, a perfect combination for withdrawal from business, noise, heat and unhealthy car-polluted air. Sad for you and your descendants, you didn't grab the one-time golden chance.

 When I left Bangkok last winter there was some activity on the free land plot next to Asoke Skytrain-station. I was sure Bangkok City was in full swing to make a garden there, Asoke garden. Coming back now, I realised it was only another moneymaking concrete heat-storing machine.

Almost all tourists I meet say two days in Bangkok are more than enough because of the environmental issues mentioned.

With an even hotter and more polluted Bangkok, one day will be more than enough. Short time thinking could turn your shopping palaces to ghost temples, who knows, with nowadays a prospective hotter future?

 You have to change now. What Bangkok needs most are parks and gardens, flowers and trees.

I think Bangkok City has to start to buy or even expropriate land to survive. You could start with Nana garden.

There is a land plot close to the Skytrain-station and the garden could be a park by adding the land of the neighbouring never-finished parking-house, by tearing it down.

A JOHNSEN

CHON BURI

Take doctors with a grain of salt

I totally agree with your editorial of Dec 11 that patients shouldn't always assume that doctors know everything and are always right.

Let's not forget that for years the medical establishment denied that smoking causes lung cancer because they couldn't confirm it with their animal tests.In fact,animal testing is an excellent example of how the media assumes something is necessary because much of the medical establishment(though not all of it)says that it is.

And doctors still tell patients to eat meat despite the fact meat is the number one cause of heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Or they tell us to drink milk to prevent osteoporosis when drinking milk actually causes it!(That's because animal protein depletes the body of its calcium).

 Still I'm not saying we should never go to a doctor.But I agree with Michael Klapper - himself a medical doctor - who said at a lecture I attended: "If you break a leg by all means go to the hospital and get a splint put on it. And then get the hell out of there as fast as possible"!

ERIC BAHRT

PATTAYA

Ex-PM should bring peace by example

Thaksin's Constitution Day speech at first was music to my ears. But, he'd told his massed red shirts that the Malaysian Special Branch had 20 men guard him during his visit to Kuala Lumpur, "because they love me" - only to have the Malaysian top policeman report the next day that they had no record of our fugitive convict even having entered their country, let alone been accorded protection. If Thaksin can lie to his own disciples, can the public believe him?

Thaksin said, "Return democracy to the people, return wealth to the people, and dignity to the country." Chai yo! Then, on returning democracy, he should follow Anand Panyarachun's Seven Pillars of Sustainable Democracy: elections, political tolerance, the rule of law, freedom of expression, accountability and transparency, decentralisation and civil society.

On rule of law, then, Thaksin should make no attempt to influence the verdict of the asset seizure cases - for surely he can trust a judicial system that's acquitted him, his ex-wife, Chalerm Yoobumrung, and five of his ex-Cabinet ministers on other cases. On accountability and transparency, Thaksin should call for the generals to face justice in the 78 cases of manslaughter and 32 cases of usage of excessive force at Tak Bai and Krue Se, respectively. He should also call for political parties and politicians, starting with his own, to be publicly audited by those approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission. On decentralisation, he should call for direct election of governors and for the military and police to be accountable to the locals whom they are sworn to serve and protect.

On his call to return wealth to the people, he stands convicted of stealing from each and every Thai - especially the poor, who form the mass of Thai society. He should immediately pay all fines levied. The Temasek shares were sold at the far-below-market price (of 1 baht each, if I recall correctly) to his children; he should call for them to pay taxes due on what should have been a market-price transaction.

Yes, Thaksin, as you rightfully said, "The Kingdom will know no peace as long as double standards are in place. People are fed up with double standards. They are smarter than in the past, and will not be fooled." Let your acts show that you stand by the standards you rightfully call for others to follow, and bring peace to our beloved country.

BURIN KANTABUTRA

BANGKOK

Spy charges based on flimsy grounds

The well-written script has now reached its expected conclusion with the release of Sivarak Chutipong, charged by the Cambodian government with alleged spying. Sivarak should not be pardoned, he should be given a full apology and financial compensation for losing his job after being wrongly accused of spying. From the details given in the press I challenge anyone to show how his actions could be remotely classified as spying.

The script was likely concocted jointly by Thaksin and Hun Sen and initiated from the moment the story broke. It was designed to inflict maximum damage on the Thai government while putting Thaksin and Hun Sen in the role of heroes pushing for a pardon and his release.

As for those Pheu Thai party members who travelled to Cambodia, obviously at their own cost one would hope, to visit and support Thaksin while being derelict in their duties at home, they should be ashamed and put their hands in their own pockets to club together to give a compensation package to Sivarak and his family for expenses incurred and loss of his job. I suggest Bt3 million may be an appropriate target. Perhaps money should be deducted from the pay of all MPs who attend to personal matters they consider more important than showing up for their duties in parliament. That may get their attention for a change.

If only Thaksin's supporters could see beyond the end of their noses there would be a glimmer of hope for Thai democracy.

CHRIS KAYE

CHON BURI

Normalising relations with our neighbour

Ref: "A cold pardon", News, December 12.

Cambodian Information Minister Khieu Kanharith's quoted contentions require repudiation.

First, the royal pardon as quickly granted would be unappreciated by the Thai government because it was in response to the opposition Pheu Thai Party. Wrong! PM Abhisit Vejjajiva had already expressed informal thanks. This government is not politically immature enough not to like a Thai being released from a shaky charge in Cambodia. It can be construed in two ways: Cambodia had a second thought or it was through Thaksin's persuasive force. Whichever, any Thais should like the result.

Second, since Thailand recalled its ambassador first, so to normalise the relationship she should return its envoy first. Wrong! It was Cambodian PM Hun Sen who first stood in Hua Hin, insulted Thailand and interfered with our politics and thereafter with frenzied statements put Thailand in low esteem, including our justice system's guilty verdict against his chum. He almost wrecked Asean's first meeting of serious co-operation initiated on our land. A simple statement of misunderstanding from PM Hun Sen would suffice for normalisation.

Third, Cambodia would not trade Thaksin for a normalised relationship. That is understandable for a country run on a crony basis. But Thailand is not able to allow Thaksin to overrun - via his friendship with the spokesman's prime minister, Hun Sen - our justice system because our political system is entrenched - though with some basic faults.

SONGDEJ PRADITSMANONT

BANGKOK