OPINION

Mobile downside

Re: "Thais devoted to mobile", (Business, Nov 11).

It does not at all surprise me that the Telenor Asia study found that Thais use and expect to use mobile devices the most in the future out of all South Asian and Southeast Asian countries surveyed.

Thais use mobile devices for banking and for help with cost of living issues, hoping to increase their revenue streams, among other things, the survey found.

It also does not surprise me that the survey found that Thai women expect to significantly increase their use of handphones in the future more than men will. I find, for example, that Thai women are likely to use their mobile devices more frequently and longer than their male counterparts on public transportation.

Of concern, though, is that Thais don't seem to care about the negative effects that such mobile devices can have, being the least worried about privacy and security issues in the South Asian and Southeast Asian hemisphere.

Enough is enough

Re: "A place for all", (PostBag, Nov 11).

Eric Bahrt's defence of his writing as combative is somewhat arrogant. One writes not to go into war but to share one's thoughts and never to win over others but to widen one's horizons. One lives and learns and not to conquer. His attitude brings in calls for "enough is enough".

Maybe Eric Bahrt could have mellowed down a bit if he could take heart from the words of British philosopher Bertrand Russell, "I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong."

Buddhist reality

Re: "What say Buddha?", (PostBag, Nov 11).

Just what is the writer Khun Felix Qui trying to convey? As a self-declared intellectual studying ancient Greek philosophy and mythology, one would expect Khun Felix to express a rather more knowledgeable, philosophical approach to Buddhism. Buddhism is not "a happy freedom from the traditional curse of religious dogma…"

Monks are followers of Buddha and should pass on his teachings. Had the common sense of Buddhism been widely adopted 25 centuries ago, religion and mythology, it could be suggested, would not exist to dominate the human mind. Individual sovereignty and the understanding of reality, science would have a controlling influence on the human world as it does on all other animal species. Buddhism is simply about knowing one's mind and understanding reality. Monks are supposed to teach this through awareness as they do in England.

Inactive duty

Re: "Sticker on truck to be probed", (BP, Nov 10).

Once again, there has been an outburst of interest in truck stickers, talk of payments to avoid overweight fees and the usual police corruption. Living among Thai farmers with pick-ups carrying loads of corn, garlic, cabbages, lychees, and oranges, I have the awful feeling that payment isn't needed. The police just don't take any interest in what rolls on the road, and the only limiting factor is the ingenuity of the guys doing the loading. The police here don't need money to avoid doing their job. Inactivity is their default mode.