The poor of Isaan have been painted with sympathy and innocence throughout this crisis, manipulated or brushed off by this side or that. But no one is entirely blameless for their lot.
By my experience, many of these people remain poor because they are poor in thought, action, motivation or initiative. Poorly educated they may be, and certainly short-changed with opportunity, but daily I see examples of how poor people shackle their next generation in poverty through stupid decisions and idle thinking.
There are some things in life that no amount of schooling can teach, and regrettably there is a stratum of society from which this is usually missing, confining them to a perpetual cycle of underachievement.
The poor of Thailand have had far more opportunities in this era than their peers in most other Southeast Asian countries, as this country has pulled more people above the poverty line in the past 30 years than most developing countries. The wealth and legal inequalities are obvious, but no more stark than in similar rapidly industrialising countries.
For sure, I wouldn't want to swap places with the poor, but if it happened, I'm sure I wouldn't blindly assume that a crooked man like Thaksin is the only answer to all my problems.
J WILLIAMS
BANGKOK
Forget Thaksin; he's never coming back
One of the weak points of this government is its fixation on Thaksin. I think it is time that the government point out to all Thais that Thaksin will never come back. That might be a more powerful reason to convince his followers to stop dreaming, and at the same time take away the rallying cry for the red shirts.
Thaksin will not come back if there is a chance of being jailed even for one day - that is way below his status, as he sees himself. And there are more court cases waiting for him.
If the opposition can get back into government, even then Thaksin would not be able to come back. Why? Because the Pheu Thai Party can do better if he stays away. If he comes back, the first thing he would do is try to reclaim his sequestered fortune. It is highly unlikely that the courts would overrule their own previous decision, so the only way would be to take money from the state coffers via corruption. But that would leave all of his other men having to wait, maybe for years, until he is satisfied, and only then would they get a chance to enrich themselves again.
So nobody in Pheu Thai or among the red-shirt leadership and backers is eager to get him back - just the opposite. He is most useful for them as long as he stays abroad and finances another round of protests.
So we can safely conclude that he will never come back. And his followers had better start thinking about how they can push their demands without relying on his financial support or that of his super-rich cronies.
SAM MUNICH
BANGKOK
Does Thailand want good teachers or not?
The fact that Thai education is circling the drain was recently brought home to me yet again.
I am an experienced, degreed, credentialed English teacher, but I am over 60 - a fact I use to mention on cover letters. I no longer actively seek employment because my age, for some reason, disqualifies me.
Two weeks ago, a former Thai colleague got me an interview with a demonstration school. I made my age clear, but the principal was sure he could work around the age factor, so I went for the interview. The university, after a few days, did say I was employable, so I was happily preparing to join the school.
Two days before my start date, the principal called back to say that no less than the president of the university had called him personally to say that I could be hired, but I would receive no more than Bt12,000 per month.
I am disappointed, but I wonder where the Bt12,000 figure comes from. Is the number totally capricious or is it generated by some arcane equation. If the latter is true, the one thing I am sure of is that the needs of Thai students were never part of this bureaucratic formula.
FORREST GREENWOOD
NAKHON SAWAN