OPINION

Fitting finale

Re: "Messi and Argentina beat France on penalties to win World Cup", (Online, Dec 19).

I have seen and experienced 16 Football World Cups since my country, Czechoslovakia, lost to Pele's Brazil in 1962. But never, ever have I seen a football World Cup final match, indeed any football match like the one between France and Argentina in 2022. What a game, what a memory!!!! Viva la France, but long live Messi. Thank you and respect to all players taking part.

Re: "Immunity theft", (BP, Dec. 18).

Crestfallen, I read Diane Archer's contribution regarding my recent classroom experiences with Covid-19. I have some thoughts.

First of all, I am in no way trying to minimize the unfortunate loss of over six million lives to an illness which we had no immunity or exposure to in the beginning. We have vaccines and exposure now and I mainly presented a verified, recent real-world experience which, after nearly half a year of constant Covid-19 exposure raises serious questions about mask-wearing, as well as Covid vaccine efficacy.

Secondly, many people are now asking questions about long-term mask-wearing, and we've even had a contributor to the Post who has developed a lung condition from mask-wearing. To reply to Mrs Archer's musings, I do think masks are pointless for preventing Covid over the long term because we all know that masked people constantly get Covid, but I did not claim that masks don't have an impact on other normal germs. I'm simply asking how it may affect us, and what the long-term consequences are. I also noticed that they seem to have minor illnesses more often than before the pandemic. Why?

Re: "Different systems", (PostBag, Dec 19).

As a former conscript into the Australian Army, I would like to debate whether Thailand should abolish conscription. I respect Felix Qui's erudite and frequent contributions to PostBag, but I believe a point of clarification is needed in his latest letter. It is the generals, who are the product of elite officer training academies, who have invariably led the 18 coups that have wrecked Thai democracy since 1932, not the low-ranked conscripts.

And, I would ask Samuel Wright some questions: What country is he from, does it have conscription, and did he serve in his country's armed forces? I ask this because, in my experience, it is usually those who are exempt from conscription or who were not conscripted who are often its most ardent supporters.

There might be an argument for conscription if, as Mr Qui says, that system required all able-bodied citizens of a certain age to do the same form of military service irrespective of family status or wealth". But that is not the case in Thailand, where conscription is a lottery -- red ball in, black ball out. And stories abound of wealthy families "buying" their sons out of military service.

This is inequitable and immoral, as was the Menzies-era conscription to which I was subjected, which was based on a dubiously administered birthday ballot, with numerous cases becoming public of people with the same birthday where one was conscripted and the other not conscripted. Thankfully, Australia long ago abolished conscription and relies on an all-volunteer defence force.

Referring to the Editorial lead on Monday of Dec 19 -- "MPs set poor example", after the MPs' resignations, the House is currently left with 442 MPs, not 471. We apologize for the mistake.

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