Re: ''Lady Gaga hits cabaret amid Rolex tweet fury'' (BP, May 25).
Thank you for putting the small blurb about Aung San Suu Kyi making her first trip outside of Myanmar in 24 years, on the front page of Thursday's newspaper.
I just hope the inclusion of this tiny news blurb didn't take anything away from Lady Gaga's giant arrival photo and tweet. Perhaps when she arrives in Bangkok next week, ''The Lady'' can take a lesson from Lady Gaga and craft a pithy tweet to get her photo splashed across the front page of your newspaper.
RICH MELAMED
Stop selling fake Rolexes
Re: ''Lady Gaga hits cabaret amid Rolex tweet fury'' (BP, May 25).
If Thais don't like Lady Gaga _ or anyone else for that matter _ talking about buying fake Rolexes, then maybe they should stop selling them.
RICHARD HARVEY
What a load of gaga
Re: ''Lady Gaga hits cabaret amid Rolex tweet fury'' (BP, May 25).
Get real and publish stories that report real concerns, not beat-ups of some gaga Lady Gaga off-the-cuff comments and the supposed ''fury'' this has caused.
DAVID BROWN
Rayong
Hypocrisy laughable
Re: ''Lady Gaga hits cabaret amid Rolex tweet fury'' (BP, May 25).
One has to laugh at the sheer hypocrisy generated by Lady Gaga's tongue-in-cheek tweet about buying a fake Rolex whilst in Thailand.
Apart from lacking any sense of humour (bearing in mind that, as a multi-millionairess, she probably wouldn't be seen dead wearing a fake watch) are these reportedly indignant and fuming Thais totally unaware that the sale of fake watches, clothes, and DVDs is rampant throughout the country, as well as pornography being openly on sale in the streets of Silom and Sukhumvit to name but two, and, where law enforcement on those streets is mainly targeted at foreigners whose only ''crime'' is to inadvertently discard a cigarette butt?
If the complainants were truly concerned about Thailand's image, shouldn't they direct their energy against the system which allows, among other things, knock-offs of Lady Gaga's music being openly on sale, and visitors to this wonderful country being scammed both on the streets and on the beaches?
MARTIN R
Old Mekhong was fine
Re: ''Mekhong targets hipsters'' (BP, Business, May 23).
As an old curmudgeon, I was disgruntled to learn about the rebranding of Mekhong. It used to be a whisky. Drunk with ice, soda, and a squirt of lime, a formula popularised by the late revered Roy Hudson of Chiang Mai, it was an ideal drink for everybody.
Now they're calling it a rum and are targeting ''sophisticated and well-travelled consumers'', says its marketing director Vorarat Charoonsmith. He wants Mekhong to be ''international and synonymous with glamour and fun''.
Well, I say Bullroar. I bet Khun Vorarat is one of these smart young marketing executives who worship at the altar of flash and glitz, and consider any product more than six months old hopelessly out of date.
There was nothing wrong with the old Mekhong, and when it ceased production I and my mates were terribly distressed. Its traditional customers were ''working-class Thai males'', the article says. So now that Mekhong has gone upmarket, what are they supposed to drink as a bracing, inexpensive pick-me-up? Kerosene?
Bring back the old Mekhong, at the old price. You can bring back the calendars, too.
HORACE BEASLEY
Tablet training needed
Re: ''Department concerned at kids' tablet PC overuse'' (BP, May 23)
I read with interest your article about the effect of tablet usage on the young and the concern over the psychological stress it might cause. While this worry has not been conclusively proven, what is proven is the adverse physical affects it will have on the children.
I am a local doctor and have seen thousands of cases of so called ''office syndrome'' that so many computer users are suffering from today. The neck and shoulder pain, along with headaches and arm numbness, are due to the stress on the neck and shoulders from the constant head flexion caused by the over use of computers and mobile phones. This is a modern epidemic that is sweeping the world.
This is the worry I have with these tablets. Teachers or nursing staff should be trained to instruct these children on the proper posture and time limits in using this device. I hope the government will see to this.
DR CHASE
Land grab in Oz too
Re: ''Foreign land grab threat not just an illusion'' (BP, Commentary, May 24) and ''Light the anti-Opec fire'' (Postbag, May 25).
The article by Sanitsuda Ekachai in quoting the GRAIN study highlighted a major problem. And John Arnone picked up very well on one of the ''culprits'', even if I might disagree with his solution.
But the focus should not be confined to developing countries. Almost by stealth, and unwittingly (or maybe even wittingly) aided and abetted by some very generous regulations, farms in Australia are being bought up by Chinese investors, at times even by state enterprises. Unfortunately, no approval is required in Australia for foreign ownership unless the value exceeds $220 million.
How many farms are worth that much? It is easy to buy up several thousand hectares which goes largely unreported, with no central registry consolidating such purchases. No government agency in Australia can tell you the area under foreign ownership nor its location nor the amount paid.
Yes, developing countries should worry because land is generally cheaper and people more willing to sell to get a few dollars in their pocket. But let's be clear that it is a worldwide issue.
NORMAN WELSH
Cairns, Australia
Land plot or plotting
Re: ''Yingluck will donate paddy land to the King'' (BP, May 23).
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra says she will donate seven rai of land worth 20 million baht at Thung Makham Yong in Ayutthaya province on behalf of the Shinawatra family to His Majesty the King when he visits the area tomorrow.
Ms Yingluck said the land was a historical area and she will explain the details of the plot after the donation is made.
Could the ''plot'' that she is referring to be a continuation of the soap opera plot to pave the way for the return of her self-exiled fugitive brother? If so, we should all look forward in eager anticipation to hearing her explain the details of the plot after the donation is made.
ROGER REALM
Chon Buri
No coming back for 91
I have become increasingly annoyed by the number of correspondents bleating over the inconvenience they faced during the 2010 troubles.
Yes, there was some inconvenience, business problems, arson, other criminal activities; however, in most instances, insurance and compensation have been paid out and rebuilding has taken place.
Yes, some lost out on pay, mostly caused by hugely profitable companies who laid people off. Some lost their livelihoods, some were terrorised. All these things need to be condemned.
But at the end of the day they are still here to make insurance claims, restart business or look for new jobs _ but the 91 dead people cannot.
It takes a particularly selfish disregard to reduce a conflict that cost 91 lives and many hundreds of casualties to complain of inconvenience. I am sure many of those who were truly affected would swap places. Get a grip and count your blessings.
WELSH MIKE
Pattaya
Methane warming next
Re: ''Climate fears cooling'' (Postbag, May 23).
We should thank Cha-am Jamal for his survey of media reports regarding climate change. Now we know the attention of the press is unrelated to the science of what is going on in reality. Global warming, especially higher temperatures in the Arctic regions, has provoked methane gas emissions.
Methane is a greenhouse gas stronger than carbon dioxide, so we can anticipate that global average temperature increases will speed up.
Thus human-caused greenhouse gas emissions have triggered natural feedback loops. Glaciers and ice sheets, which trapped methane gas under water and in frozen ground, have melted enough so that the trapped methane is escaping. A team of researchers from the University of Alaska has mapped 150,000 methane seeps in Greenland and Alaska which have developed over the last decade.
This means that nature has taken climate change out of human control. No longer will decreasing human greenhouse gas emissions be sufficient to halt global warming. We would have to find ways of removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, which is likely to be a more difficult process than simply reducing emissions. Some scientists and engineers are suggesting ideas for ''geo-engineering'' _ man-made methods to cool the atmosphere and restore the oceans to their normal acidity.
There is a lot of science involved in these issues. We had better start learning the science and paying attention before we do something stupid, like ruining the biosphere of our planet so that the rate of species extinctions becomes overwhelming.
ROBERT UPLEE
Australia needs Asia
Re: ''Australia: Mood turns against new immigrants'' (BP, May 23).
A survey conducted recently revealed that 51% of Australian respondents thought their population is too high and that they should stop immigration. Only 32% of respondents felt Australia should welcome more immigrants. Most importantly, 65% said migrants should adopt the ''Australian way of life''.
From my experience living in Australia for 13 years, the immigration issue has always been politicised and heated, especially when the next federal election is due in the near future (this happens to be next year). Whenever the economy is down, immigrants are almost always treated as convenient scapegoats. Accusations have been raised that the immigrants are there to ''steal'' the jobs from the locals; that they put pressure on existing infrastructure such as the rental market and transportation. And importantly, they don't integrate and acclimatise themselves into Australian society.
So if one doesn't play Aussie football, head to the pub on the weekend to watch cricket, or have a barbecue in one's backyard _ does that make one ''un-Australian?'' How can Australia call itself a multicultural society when it doesn't tolerate differences in cultures and lifestyles? The irony is that many current Australian politicians are either first- or second-generation immigrants.
One of the biggest exports in Australia (besides coal and ore to China) is education. Each year hundreds of thousands of foreign students _ especially those from Asia _ make their way to study in Australia _ be it at high schools, technical colleges, or universities. Billions of dollars of revenues are generated each year from education and its related sources (eg, rent, food, and transportation). With a population of merely 23 million Australia might not realise this but it needs Asia more than vice versa. Asia has a combined population of over 4 billion accounting for more than half of the world's population. Without Asian students studying in Australia, the Australian economy will suffer greatly.
If Australia keeps up with this anti-immigration attitude, come 2015 with the opening of the Asean Economic Community, Thai students may well decide to study in Singapore, Malaysia or elsewhere instead. Indeed, many Thai students are already choosing to study in South Korea, Japan and China instead of the traditional Anglo-Saxon developed nations (the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) where they typically sought education.
EDWARD KITLERTSIRIVATANA
Graft kills motorists
When driving on the roads, the police line them, especially at the end of the month, trying to catch motorcycle drivers for not driving in the left-hand lane. This phenomenon seems to be getting worse.
The United Nations has its decade of road safety from 2011 to 2020. I wrote to them and I told them I thought they should add one extra category to their list for reasons people die on the road, besides driving too fast, lack of protective equipment, poor roads, etc. I told them I thought they should add corruption. Because when we are told to do things which are dangerous, then that must be against our human rights.
How can police insist that you should drive on the left when it is dangerous to do so? Buses stop, people pull out religiously without looking, people pull in without indicating. The only safe place to be is in the middle or on the right. Anywhere else, unless there are few cars on the road, would be unsafe. If there were few cars on the road, I would be happy to adhere. As they say in England, keep left, but they would never say that if it was unsafe. You always pass on the right. Which is why I guess they insist you keep left because they know you cannot and if you do you will be killed or you will have to pay them a bribe to let you off.
MARVIN LEVITH
CONTACT: BANGKOK POST BUILDING
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