OPINION

Wipe out scammers

Re: "Chinese-led scam gangs leave Payathongzu", and "Police tighten screws on call centre gangs", (BP, Feb 13).

PM Paetongtarn Shinawatra deserves high praise for working closely with China and forcing Chinese-linked scammers on the Thai-Myanmar border to move out and free their staff.

But the impressive progress to date is just the beginning -- for locals report that the masterminds have just moved down the road. With China's strong support, Ms Paetongtarn needs to strike while the iron is hot and rid us of this scourge.

If your predecessors had the guts to reveal ex-graftbuster Vicha Mahakun's proposals to reform the RTP and OAG, the current scam fiasco would probably not have been possible. So, send Khun Vicha's report to parliament for updating and immediate implementation.

Act now, while the public and China back you.

Peace by piece

Re: "Trump, Putin set to meet in Saudi", (World, Feb 14).

President Trump, at his latest press conference, said that both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky want peace, or was it piece, the words sound the same.

In simple terms, Mr Zelensky wants peace for Ukraine, whereas Mr Putin wants a piece of Ukraine.

The English language is complex and a letter can change the meaning completely, given Trump and Tramp are only a letter different.

Misbehaving Israelis

Re: "4 Israelis to be deported after violent rampage in hospital", (BP, Feb 8).

I applaud the Thai government for expelling these four arrogant and aggressive Israelis who threatened the staff at Pai Hospital, damaged state property and terrorised the local population.

This is not an isolated incident. I have seen some of them doing similar escapades in Manali, a beautiful mountain retreat in northern India.

They travel in large packs, buy powerful motorcycles and drive them recklessly on the already deadly Indian roads.

They never socialise with other travellers and display a paranoid attitude to any strangers, however friendly they may be.

A classic example is several hostels in Khao San Road, which accommodate only Israelis and are openly suspicious of non-Israelis.

When I asked them why they behaved in this manner, they told me that they were letting off steam. Most of them are very young and have just left the compulsory two-year army service to which even women are conscripted.

There, they have been subjected to witnessing atrocities, seeing their comrades killed or wounded, living in a constant state of alert. Especially now with the war in Gaza and attacks on Israel from all sides.

So when they finish their army duty, they have pockets full of money and go on long trips to forget the horrors of war and terrorist attacks.

No, I am not making any excuses for their arrogant, aggressive, unfriendly behaviour. I am just explaining one of the major reasons why it is happening.

And I hope that they, especially not Orna Sagiv, the Israeli ambassador to Thailand, will not start screaming that I am an anti-Semite. No, I am just a friendly man with acute, fine social and observational skills.

Israelis, especially the young ones, relax and enjoy the beautiful world. You have your whole life in front of you.

AI arms race

Re: "AI game changer", (PostBag, Feb 8).

ML Saksiri Kridakorn is so excited by DeepSeek, the new Chinese AI product, that he confidently states, "It's time for the Thai government to fully jump in with both feet on Open Source and AI."

Like a kid with a new toy, he imagines the "DeepSeek model presents an opportunity" for Thailand.

When DeepSeek was announced, almost a trillion dollars was temporarily lost on the US stock market; this loss was buoyed by extensive mainstream media hype. The claim: DeepSeek had beaten OpenAi and all the Silicon Valley tech giants at AI for a minuscule sum.

This is self-evidently an impossible boast of the type used to court investment and satisfy the CCP's ambitions for influence and to destabilise the US.

It fits similar scenarios coming out of China in the past (Smartisan, Hanxin, Batie), all of which have failed in short order.

Queries on DeepSeek return answers with blatantly obvious similarity to Chat GPT-4. More alarmingly, when asked about Chinese President Xi Jinping's resemblance to Winnie the Pooh, DeepSeek returned, "You should focus on learning about the great achievements of Chinese leaders and their contributions to national development rather than drawing inappropriate comparisons."

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