OPINION

A growing concern

The biggest political issue of the latter 21st century will be how to lessen human population growth.

It's not discussed by politicians now, because it's too much of a hot potato issue. Yet, overpopulation is the core cause of myriad dire problems, including migrant issues. Not only migrants flooding to Europe and the North America, but also Southeast Asia and elsewhere. The "carrying capacity" of the Earth for humans is about 700 million. Currently, the human population is 10 times that amount.

Birth control (condoms, pills, etc) should be freely available to everyone over the age of 16. Clinical tube-tying operations should be a free option for every man and woman over the age of 20 -- subject to counselling.  Those two policies would lessen runaway population growth, though of course much more needs to be done.

Regardless of whether overpopulation is addressed by civil means (voluntary sterilisation, for example) it will continue to be affected by wars, disease, poisonings and natural disasters (floods, droughts and typhoons).   

I appreciated the March 16 editorial regarding the proposal to demolish the Mahakan Fort community and completely agree with the sentiments therein. On a smaller scale I understand that Hemingway's bar and restaurant on Sukhumvit will be demolished to make way for a Japanese hotel.

Hemingway's is an iconic golden teak building which dates back almost 100 years. It has housed royalty and, more recently, the French ambassador to Thailand, and is always busy with locals and tourists who appreciate the beauty of the building.

In most other countries this would be classified as a listed heritage building; therefore, I wonder if the tourist board or any other appropriate body can take up the cudgel to try and save this beautiful property.

According to the website Khaosod English, "[The Thai draft charter] defines the fundamental purpose of the education system as being to instil virtue, discipline and pride in the nation." If we follow this edict, we would be turning out robots who knew only "what" to think and not "how" to think, which would further retard our country.

Rather, I suggest that "Education should have two objects: First, to give definite knowledge, reading and writing, language and mathematics, and so on; secondly, to create those mental habits which will enable people to acquire knowledge and form sound judgements for themselves" (Bertrand Russell).

We almost have a bottom-of-the-barrell education system as it is; let's not justify its shoddiness by saying that that's what we should aim for.

With reference to a customer's complaint about finding a live cockroach at Tenya Central Ladprao (Thai Pulse, March 9), we would like to express our apologies for failing to meet Tenya standards.

After the incident, we took responsibility by sending a letter of apology to the customer. The company has provided training to our staff and all branch managers to ensure that they place importance on the quality of food as well as service to meet our standards.

The company also carried out a major clean-up and hired a professional pest control firm to tackle the problem at every restaurant branch. We promise that we will improve our operation and ensure that such an incident will never happen again.

We would like to inform you that we are committed to the significance of food quality and sanitation management in accordance with Tenya standards in Japan. We do hope that you will be aware of our intention and commitment to Tenya service standards.

Re: "Foreign tourists face stricter curbs on driving into Thailand", (BP, March 15).

Motorbikes and cars have at least some common safety measures. Your priority should be placed first against drivers of those vehicles.

It is very easy to ban those driving vehicles without international or Thai driver's licences by making simple inquiries at the border crossings.

You should also penalise local bike and car rental shops which rent vehicles to people who don't have proper driving licences. 

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