POSTBag

Ban water havoc on the roadways

136 Na Ranong Road, Klong Toey, Bangkok 10110, Thailand - fax:022403666 - email:postbag@bangkokpost.co.th

If the government is serious about trying to cut down the number of road accidents during Songkran then may I suggest a simple adjustment that might help.

Why not ban throwing water on roads, at motorbikes and other vehicles, and from the back of pick-up trucks? Restrict water throwing to pedestrians only.

We could even consider allowing only pedestrians into certain areas of towns during Songkran, so that anyone wishing to engage in the annual water ''war'' can go there and willingly partake.

I'm not being a killjoy or trying to stop Songkran, just trying to rein in some of the elements that have developed over the years and which have nothing to do with the original spirit and intention of the holiday.

You can still have fun throwing water and getting soaked, but death and injuries on the road are not fun.

Of course, that won't cut down on the higher rate of drinking while driving which takes place during the holidays, but it will at least cut out the additional risk factor of having a bucket of water thrown at you or a hose squirted in your face while riding a motorbike.

Until this simple adjustment is made I don't think we will see much change.

JUAN BAPTISTA

Tougher laws must be enforced

I trust most everyone is in agreement with the stiffening of the penalties for drinking and driving in Thailand (Bangkok Post, April 8). According to the article, under existing regulations, a person is legally drunk if his or her blood contains 150 milligrammes or more of alcohol per 100 millilitres.

Why does Thailand always insist on rediscovering the wheel? Experts in the field of toxicology the world over claim that virtually everyone is impaired at 80mg of alcohol, and the laws reflect that fact with impairment generally being regulated between 50mg to 100mg.

Nonetheless, any law is laughable without enforcement and on that front I think everyone in Thailand knows the status quo will remain.

SAMUI DAVE

Free speech rarely a reality in Thailand

Scott Moore (Postbag, April 6) admits he is not much of a historical scholar and it would appear from his letter he is not much of a student of current affairs either.

How he can claim that the people of Thailand enjoy freedom of speech is beyond me. Thai TV and radio are little more than government propaganda machines, with no dissenting view ever heard on either.

The print media exercises rigid self-censorship _ has he read anywhere that foreign academics are currently discussing a boycott of next year's Thai Studies Conference because they will not be permitted to criticise the sufficiency theory, or discuss His Majesty the King's role in politics.

Thousands of websites are blocked for reasons of ''national security'' and public speech is overshadowed by some of the world's harshest defamation laws and 19th-century lese majeste laws.

DOM DUNN

United Kingdom

US groups fought to censor anti-Bush film

Scott Moore's rose-tinted view of freedom of expression in the US was touching, but a little detached from reality.

It's interesting that he specifically mentions Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11 as an example of artistic freedom, as this film was obstructed and threatened by various powerful groups within the US. Disney Corp pressured Miramax to block distribution of the film as it might anger the governor of Florida, one Jeb Bush, and a well-funded conservative group, Move America Forward, leaned heavily on theatre chains not to screen it.

Scott Moore's account also conveniently omits the whole ugly period of McCarthyism and the US record of censoring and persecuting those who would not buy into the Cold War.

The vast majority of mainstream films in the US that get big funding and heavy distribution portray America as the centre of the universe and Americans as heroes, whether factually accurate or not. Dark-skinned foreigners are invariably cast as untrustworthy, criminals or terrorists. It's perhaps a subtle form of propaganda, but propaganda it most certainly is.

As for his comment that people in Thailand ''enjoy freedom of speech and expression'', with the Bangkok Post reporting on the very same day that 35,000 websites are currently blocked by the police and 13,500 by the ICT Ministry, he surely cannot be serious?

JACK

Perhaps helium not the culprit

I enjoyed your correspondent's report (Bangkok Post, April 7) regarding Pongsaklek Wongjongkam's achievement in defending his boxing world title for a most impressive 17th time. I was, however, sorry to read that 20 people were hurt due to exploding balloons apparently filled with helium.

Helium is actually the most gentle, inoffensive of gases, and it would put a fire out, so I think the blame really rests with hydrogen. Although it gives twice the lift of helium, it is very explosive and should never be used to fill party balloons.

I'll leave the reader to guess which of the two gases, hydrogen or helium, is cheaper.

ANDREW DERHAM

Bangkok

Put environment on political burner

Leading up to the three previous elections, can anyone name one environmental issue that was discussed by any of the political parties? I can't. Despite repeated mention by Her Majesty the Queen, environmental concerns continue to be off the political radar.

Just looking at whether there's a sustainable amount of fish in Thailand's waters, here's a direct quote from the most recent edition of National Geographic magazine: ''In Asia, so many boats have fished the waters of the Gulf of Thailand that stocks [of fish] are close to exhaustion.''

Some countries, Canada and New Zealand in particular, have effective policies for setting aside bodies of water to enable fish stocks to replenish. The US recently created the world's largest marine preserve near Hawaii. At 310,000 sq km, it's 70% the size of Thailand's land mass. How many square kilometres of ''marine parks'' has Thailand set aside for preservation?

Every linear metre of Thailand's beaches contains rubbish, decreasing numbers of large fish or mammals grace its waters. Its coral reefs are slowly being decimated.

Mangroves, which are like nurseries for sea life, are systematically cut down to make way for shrimp farms _ which wind up getting abandoned soon after.

If a dynamic environmentalist shows up, he or she stands a good chance of getting murdered. Meanwhile, Thailand's leaders seem to have more pressing matters at hand. For the upcoming election, voters should demand that candidates address such issues.

KEN ALBERTSEN

Chiang Rai

Bangkok Post

Monday April 09, 2007