OPINION

Conjugal confusion

Re: "Thamanat's fortunes dip", (BP, Dec 29). I see from our "flour" ex-minister Thamanat's asset declaration that he has not one but two wives, evidently living in harmony, as evidenced by their two children. Many men would be most grateful if he'd reveal how he's managed that feat, as my wife insists that Thai laws allow us only one spouse each, with strict punishment for violation.

Or is our elite exempt from pesky laws?

Patriot games

Re: "Myanmar court jails more celebrities", (BP, Dec 30).

After the self-serving in uniform "overthrew an elected government", Myanmar's celebrities did the right thing: they stood up and spoke out for democracy against the enemies of their nation's people.

Good people, especially those who will be heard, do speak out against bad people who, under fake claims of various incredible lies lamely presented as excuses, plot, commit, collude in, sign off on, or profit from coups that overthrow a people's popular form of democratic government.

The patriotic Myanmar people now being unjustly imprisoned in strict accordance with a law made up to pervert justice are an example to the rest of Asean, too many of whose nations also suffer under the repressive, anti-democratic regimes that pervert the rule of law to criminalise peaceful calls for openness, transparency, accountability and the other good morals of democracy. Those so imprisoned by morally corrupt law are the true patriots of their nation and the people whose nation it is.

Bingo booze

Re: "Rolling dice on casinos", (BP, Dec 19).

It's doubtful that all the hullabaloo over legalising gambling in Thailand will ever progress beyond the realm of murky parliamentary panels and bloated sub-committees. But if legal casinos would indeed ever become a reality in the country, I wonder if they will have to suspend the serving of alcohol between 2pm and 5pm?

Vax power

Re: "Media mind games", (PostBag, Dec 30).

Some select high-level Wall Street investment banks hire the very best analysts and pay them millions of dollars a year. Often they know their respective industries better than high-level executives there, as they analyse these and compare them with their competitors.

One such is the US pharmaceutical industry, as it's big and important if not globally dominant. It's telling how Goldman Sachs just mandated all of its employees to get vaccinated, or else. One can deduce that there is no way they would demand this of all their high-level professional people, all around the world, if they felt the vaccine was not safe, or worthy.

Pony up

Re: "Covid-borne fascism", (PostBag, Dec 27).

If it's fascist to encourage, cajole, shame, incentivise people to be vaccinated, is it equally an assault on civil liberties to ban smoking in public places, insist on seatbelts, prohibit driving when drunk, impose speed limits, crack down on dangerous recreational drugs, criminalise those who knowingly spread other diseases such as Aids?

Get real, Eric. This is a public health issue, pure and simple. Your three or four anti-vax talking points have been shot down in flames many times. A PostBag contributor recently defended you as not being a one-trick pony. Well, time to find a new hobby horse.

Moral bubble

Re: "Naked granny", (PostBag, Dec 24); "Foreign indecency", (PostBag, Dec 21); "Vulgarity won't win", (PostBag, Dec 17).

It is about time that Vint Chavala stops defending his obvious illogical statements.

People in the West and most other countries in the world would scoff at the suggestion that foreigners are the repositories of all evil in society, and that only their own citizens are free from vulgarity.

It is no longer possible to live in a bubble; yet, in his "Vulgarity won't win" letter, Mr Chavala says: "I aspire for democracy in Thailand, but only in a good, civilised and peaceful manner -- and one that has nothing to do with foreign influence or interference".

Setting aside all arguments on whether this should be the preferred option or not, the bottom line is that this is not possible in our present modern-day global world, where all countries are interconnected with one another.

Zombie fashion

Re: "Hidden happiness", (PostBag, Dec 30).

Yes, I agree with Ron and others that the hijab is different from a burka. Covering women from the top to the toes with an ugly garment makes them look like zombies. Hence there is an open and genuine outcry about imposing the burka on Muslim women.

A hijab, on the other hand, is just a headgear adding colour to a women's overall appearance. Like a colourful hat or a scarf, it should be treated as an ornament, an object of beauty.

Also, it is none of the business of the fanatics and fringe elements in any society to decide which gear or dress is a sign of oppression. To many, a mandatory uniform to attend a school or a college in Thailand is a sign of oppression. To others, it is a thing of pride. As they say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder".

Unmasked terror

I am a resident of Pattaya and finally enjoy being free to eat out and have a drink if so desired. However when out walking, I am alarmed by the number of people who are not wearing masks, and most are foreigners.

There is no sign of any police enforcing the law. Indeed, those who refuse to wear face masks must be held to account in fairness to others who comply.

Test & Fail

Sir,

The Test & Go scheme needs to be investigated.

I know of several travellers who originally never provided a result for a Day 6 ATK as the hotel never requested it -- two of those went on to test positive but never reported it. God knows how many people they infected.

One hotel is allowing guests to leave their hotel in Bangkok even before receiving their first test.

There also seems to be a severe breach of the SHA+ scheme in Pattaya where bars, pubs and even reports of one go-go bar obtaining an SHA+ certification as a restaurant by becoming a bistro. They are selling cakes purchased from 7-11 and just adding them to people's bills while serving large amounts of alcohol.

One "bistro" owner has even openly said people should buy Ivermectin when staying in Pattaya and he himself had given the medication to people who tested positive but refused for the result to be recorded and attend hospital.

Geopolitics in 2022

Whether it is hard to accept the reality, we waltz into 2022, at last. The question is with certain cataclysmic events in 2021, are the times ahead pointing to the end or, the beginning of how things will shape up in the 21st century?

For one thing, democracy has been tested in the country that carried its banner in the 20th century. Jan 6, 2021, witnessed something horrific to the stalwarts of democracy -- the attack on Capitol Hill in Washington DC. Meanwhile, in continental Europe, France felt betrayed by shifting the alliance between the US and Australia for submarines.

The year witnessed the division in polemics between the United States and China, with China coming out of the red corner with its boxing gloves firmly tightening on media controls in Hong Kong.

COP-26 came off with much to fret over, the Chinese and Indian governments respectively not yielding their positions on concessions towards carbon reduction targets.

Ironically, the race to space and to intergalactic universes has heated up with the US, Europe and China to boot sending ambitious missions short term and long-range.

Are the military manoeuvres by Russia toward Ukraine a provocation, or shades of how negotiations will emerge in the future of sanctioned countries feeling the economic pinch and impeding social uprisings?

All this amid the surge of the Covid-19 virus mutating from the Delta strain to the current Omicron, which has sent world governments and their medical services into frenzied action to contain the spread, while diplomatically ignoring the causes of global climate change, of unmitigated floods, droughts, soil erosion and deforestation.

What world would we like to live in? Or what are we making of the world we have to exist in? Will we have the remainder of the 21st century to fix things or force a fracas on life?