OPINION

Rice roulette

Re: "A rice old business", (Editorial, May 10).

Has anybody had a bad stomach from eating the 10-year-old rice that had been washed 15 times? And fumigated by chemicals 50-60 times?

Why sell to Africa? I lived for four years in Africa and had never heard the Africans liked old rice!

Does selling 10-year-old rice cover the 10-year rental cost of the warehouse? Yes, why not feed the cabinet lunch while the rice is still good!?

Banking bias

Re: "FTI calls on central bank to mull rate cut", (Business, May 8).

It makes no difference to SMEs and small shops whether you decrease the interest rate by a few points, as it helps nobody except the big conglomerates and multinational companies (who are already making a lot of profit).

I am mentioning here a case to describe the situation on the ground: A friend of mine, who is an SME, has taken a 2-million-baht loan from one of the four leading banks to buy an office for his company (which has been renting one for the past three years) at the following bank's terms:

- 13% interest rate per annum.

Plus the "etc charges":

- 3% for loan approval

- 1% mortgage fee to the land office

- 0.75% appraisal fee

- 0.75% insurance fee

All in all, this sums up to 18.5% for the first year and 14% for the following years.

Moreover, the four etc charges mentioned above (equal to 6%) are to be paid in advance (which is deducted from the principal loan amount).

It seems that commercial banks consider an SME loan to be a "risky" portfolio; moreover, the managing director/major shareholder of this firm happens to be a senior citizen. On this point, my argument that the bank has 3-tier risk protection is as follows:

a) The property title deed is guaranteed by the bank

b) Life insurance/fire insurance

c) Personal guarantee of one of the shareholders

So, with such stringent measures in place, I don't think there is more risk involved than giving the loan to a younger person.

On the contrary, this company, run by three senior citizens, pays taxes every year and, provides jobs, earns their livelihood while relieving the government of caring for such senior citizens.

My suggestion:

The government should put a ceiling on lending rates by commercial banks to a max of 7.5%, which will encourage more SMEs and senior citizens (with vast amounts of knowledge and experience) to create new businesses instead of penalising them with heavy interest rates and conditions.

In comparison, the interest rate for buying a car (a depreciating asset) is 1.99% or 4% compound interest.... compared with 14% for an SME that provides a full guarantee (with appreciating assets) that generates jobs and income. Doesn't that seem weird?

Cost of free speech

Re: "Awaiting justice", (PostBag, May 8), "Panuphong get three years", "Comic in crosshairs after Netflix show", (BP, May 9) and "Anon gets more jail time", (BP, April 30).

Don McMahon is right that the law should follow justice. As his example of the brutish treatment by Thai law of the globally honoured human rights advocate Arnon Nampa demonstrates yet again, Thai law actively rejects justice in too many cases.

To imprison anyone for a single day, let alone for decades, for the honest expression of free speech is morally indefensible.

Adding a large dollop of apparent double standards here, Thaksin Shinawatra -- now an inmate on parole -- has been recorded in WikiLeaks about the blunt remarks he made in personal communication with an ex-US ambassador on monarchy reform and coup, which goes far beyond Move Forward's monarchy reform campaign.

And how has Thaksin been treated by Thai law for his perfectly clear opposition to those same laws being used to silence urgently needed discussion?

And now the most recent rejection of open dialogue, which is the only way to informed opinion of any worth on any topic, is highlighted in the Post's "Comic in crosshairs after Netflix show", wherein we read that the comedian gets lambasted and got sued for making a joke of what is believed to be the sufficient economy.

I notice that Mr Nose's show has, in the last 24 hours, risen mightily in popularity on Netflix.

Politics of climate

Re: "Not the right way", (PostBag, May 6).

Ferns's letter is certainly good-hearted. However, the assertion, "It seems hard to me to argue against climate change, and its effects, as we all swelter in the current heatwave in Thailand", defines one of the ways that propaganda works.

Yes, it is hot, a common occurrence this time of year, but it is not proof of a long-term rise in global temperatures that an individual can experience and know. This is precisely the mode of irrational thought the UN wants everyone to adopt unconsciously.

"Oh, bad weather again has to be our fault; we caused it, and therefore, we must fix it."

Furthermore, the IPCC COP publications are not research. Based primarily upon flawed mathematical modelling and "expert opinions", the annual reports are a primary means for politicians and bureaucrats to push their wealth and power transfer agendas on the rest of us.

Wonder who benefits? That tiny bunch of unelected greedy and selfish conspirators. We, the people, are being exploited, conned and abused.

Why else would they keep exclusive meetings secret and demand censorship?

Facts over fear

Re: "Jab-linked blood clots 'super rare'", (BP, May 3).

Why is there this ongoing insinuation that the Thai health establishment is engaged in a cover-up of the incidence of blood clots as a side-effect of Covid-19 vaccines?

Between April 2021 and July 2022, the Thai government allocated a fund of 100 million baht to compensate Covid vaccine recipients for any adverse side effects, including death. Over 21,000 claims were reviewed by an expert panel, and some 17,500 claimants were compensated. The figures for the different categories of injury and the number of deaths attributed to Covid vaccines are readily available.

Can it be that Dr Thiravit Hemachudha is not able to access the data from that scheme and confirm or otherwise the official figure for the specific side-effect of blood clotting, and why would blood clots be concealed any more than any other side-effect, such as death?

If people didn't report side effects when they had a financial incentive to do so, It seems highly unlikely that there will be any statistically useful numbers who choose to respond to Dr Thiravat's call to report now.

Front-page horror

Re: "Police nab druggie after attacking woman at BTS", (BP, May 9).

Referring to the Bangkok Post cover page, surely global events of huge significance take precedence over the same page's report of a Thai man, high on drugs, assaulting a woman on a BTS skywalk in broad daylight and indulging in indecent exposure. Moreover, passers-by apparently offered the unfortunate lady no immediate help.

Such reporting does not encourage tourists, who may have bought a street copy out of curiosity, shuddered at what should have been relegated to local news and now debate about ever returning again to the "Land of Smiles" for safety reasons. Or maybe it better served as a warning not to return in that context.

Mad about manholes

Re: "It's called a manhole", (PostBag, May 9) and "Hole of Tragedy" (Editorial picture, May 7).

Thanks to Maleka Parveen for her comments.

I agree that the circular pipe seen in the news photo was part of a manhole but not the main part. I was in a little bit of a hurry while writing my letter such that I did not go into further detail that it was an "access shaft to a manhole".

However, Ms Parveen might have been in a little bit of a hurry too, such that she made an erroneous reference by stating that the word "manhole" was "rightly used in the May 7 editorial". In fact, the wording stated in the second sentence of the third paragraph of the referred editorial was "manhole shaft", and, in the next sentence "the shaft", which was perfectly conforming to my suggested wording.

Having said all this, I am glad that we both agree that the word "tube well" as originally appeared in the news report was incorrect.

I would like to explain further that, based on my lifelong experience in the construction sector, a manhole is not simply a hole that a worker can go through, but it means a small chamber or cavity sufficiently big to provide manoeuvrability for a worker to operate some construction/repair/maintenance activities, and it must be at the same depth as the structure which it serves, either a sewerage pipe or a cabling conduit system.

In the case of a road drainage system, the sewer pipe is shallow underground, and so is its manhole, with its cover level with the road surface so that you can see. But in the case of the cabling conduit in the news, it was stated in the referred editorial as "a seven-metre-deep manhole shaft", clearly implying that the shaft leads down to the seven-metre-deep underground manhole, which you can't see from the road surface.

If you have a chance to see a picture of the shaft from a different angle from the one on the May 7 Op-ed page, you will see a wall ladder with three steps made of round steel bar. The ladder depicts an access structure.

Therefore, the circular pipe is an access shaft to the manhole.