OPINION

Local sports stars?

Re: "More than a handful" (PostBag, Dec 31).

Thanin Bumrungsap goes to lengths to try and show how many Thai athletes were successful on the international stage this past year.

Nonetheless, I still think this newspaper was correct in stating previously that "only a handful of Thai athletes were successful on the international stage in 2022".

Mr Bumrungsap lists the names of successful Thai athletes in sports such as golf, tennis and motor racing etc, in addition to volleyball. While that is all well and good, I'm not sure how successful the athletes really were in their chosen sports; and even if they were, these are not exactly the most popular sports in the world.

I think that we can all agree that football is the most important sport in the world. And when was the last time that Thailand qualified for this? Enough said.

And what about the most popular sports in North America, such as baseball, basketball, American football, and ice hockey, or rugby in the Pacific? How many Thais participated in these?

Until Thai schools make greater efforts to encourage youngsters to participate in sports, I'm afraid that Thailand can expect the same lacklustre results for a while. For most Thai kids, the only form of sports that they get is an hour of PE class per week. Quite clearly, this is not enough. Thai kids need at least double the amount of physical education classes per week than they are getting now. And they also need to be encouraged to participate in sports after school instead of just playing games on their phones, as has been per usual up until now.

Just doesn't add up

Re: "Bang Sue logo redesign 'transparent'" (BP, Jan 6).

Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob told parliament that Bang Sue's nameplates will be changed because of "tradition".

But, if so, why: (a) did the cabinet wait until the station had been opened three years before asking HM the King in 2022 to name it? (b) Did Saksayam's Transport Ministry design and permanently attach a "temporary" nameplate, thus now necessitating 6 million baht for dismantling the "temporary" sign and 24 million baht for replacing glass panels? And (c) can we expect that other terminals nationwide will have their names changed also?

Minister Pinocchio, is your nose growing?

Voting for cash

Re: "Expect vote buying to be 'rampant', warns Chuan" (BP, Jan 2).

Do all of those Thai people who engage in vote buying, whether buying or selling, actually think themselves honest? Honest people neither buy nor sell votes.

Since the evidence presented in "The Dishonesty of Honest People: A Theory of Self-Concept Maintenance" by behavioural economist Dan Ariely and his colleagues is that being reminded of our own moral principles just before an act is done has a salutary effect on what is then done. It might be helpful to have every voter read aloud and sign a solemn vow just before entering the booth to cast their vote that they will not vote for any candidate from whom they have received cash within the last six months because to do so would be a dishonest act.

Or would they just act dishonestly both before and in the voting booth anyway, and then go to a temple to bribe the karmic bureaucracy to overlook their bad deed by buying some merit with a donation?

Seeking answers

Re: "317 died in 2,440 road accidents in New Year's week" (BP, Jan 5).

Are the resources of the Post really so limited that it cannot provide answers to the obvious questions raised by reporting government press releases at face value?

How long is the probation period for being caught drink driving?

Do drunk drivers have their vehicles impounded on detection, are they made to leave them on the roadside, or are they allowed to drive on?

How many probation offices are there around Thailand, and how "regularly" do offenders have to report to authorities, and how do they get there if their licence has been suspended?

How do police assess a driver's likelihood of becoming addicted or repeating the offence from just one traffic stop or breath test at an accident?

Given that the probation department announced an identical regime after the last holiday period, why has the Post not sought figures for how many drivers actually underwent rehabilitation after previous long holidays?

It's difficult not to conclude that your editors have realised that trying to tease out such answers would be as much an exercise in creative statistics as the full "7- deadly-days" figures for road deaths which will hit us shortly, with the usual improbable 2 decimal point percentages of who, why, where and when.

Just as it is frustrating that we shall never know how many of the injured now in hospital will add to the death toll in the meantime, it is depressing that the country will see the same cycle of events repeated in four months at Songkran.

Online backlash

Re: "CP chair offers upbeat outlook" (Business, Dec 2).

News of a prominent Chinese-Thai multibillionaire recently offering unasked advice that the Thai government should allow foreigners to buy land in the country, which has been met with a strong backlash from most Thai thinkers online, was interesting.

Most billionaires speak only for themselves when they offer any "perfect idea" for society or government to carry out.

In this case, the billionaire in question seems to have forgotten that he and his other 1% richest ilk have long been acquiring land in the prime areas of Thailand for a long time. That is why opening the country for foreign money to buy land would only benefit these billionaires directly -- not the country as a whole.

A majority of Thais are either homeless or own land only in areas that are far off and undeveloped, which is of no interest in the eyes of foreign buyers.

Hence, the idea offered by this tycoon is just a result of "micro thinking".

Statistics to ponder

Re: "Covid choices" (PostBag, Jan 4).

I return to Thailand after a long absence, and the first letter I see is from Eric Bahrt banging on, again, about his (wrong) take on Covid vaccines!

China is facing problems now because many of its elderly, like Eric, don't believe in them, so they have no immunity at all and are vulnerable.

The production and distribution of mRNA vaccines was a modern success story and has given us back some degree of normality.

This is a statistic to ponder, issued by the US National Bureau of Economic Research:

"Average excess death rates in Florida were 76% higher among Republicans than Democrats from March 2020 to December 2021".

Could it be that it is because Republicans shunned the vaccine, believing countless Erics rather than published facts?

Renaming due

I have it on good authority that the BP's "PostBag" section is soon to be re-named "Windbags". Not a moment too soon.

Samui needs repairs

Like thousands of tourists, I am sitting on Koh Samui in the dark on New Year's Eve, during a widespread power outage and remembering that I read last week that the government was pressing ahead with the absurd 17km bridge from the mainland to Koh Samui.

This week we have suffered maybe ten power cuts, many quite brief, some not. Many houses have also been unable to get government water this week. Rubbish disposal is also a big problem on the island.

Basically, the island's infrastructure here is woefully inadequate in spite of being one of our biggest tourist destinations. How can this be?

We don't need a bridge. If a ferry can't operate because of storms, no one is going to be driving commercial vehicles 17km across the open ocean. We need reliable power, water, garbage treatment and a restriction on the number of vehicles on the island, with an annual budget to manage them.

Zoochosis

Wild animals belong in the wild. Conversely, the PATA department store in Bangkok has caged wild animals in its PATA Zoo -- it's unnatural and depressing for them.

These living beings have been deprived of mental and physical stimulation. For example, a gorilla named Bua Noi has been in a concrete enclosure since 1983. The animals there have lived in cages that are like prisons with no enrichment, no socialising with their families and peers and no freedom that wild animals must have, leading to them being miserable.

Zoochosis is a mental symptom that has affected the animals in zoos.

Zoochosis is a captivity-related mental illness that shows itself through the animals rocking, swaying, pacing or even harming themselves. They have nothing to play with except trash in their barren cages.