Saturday, April 21, 2007

POSTBAG

Beyond the charter

The glory and existence of Buddhism do not depend on what the charter says.

Lord Buddha told his disciples over 2,550 years ago that as long as they study and put into practice his dharma, Buddhism shall exist.

In a nutshell, Buddhists should have faith endowed with wisdom, practice the Five Precepts and not get carried away by superstition, but believing in deeds.

Do not seek the gift-worthy outside of the teachings, and apply themselves to supporting and helping Buddhist causes.

VICHAI PANYADILOK

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Way to go, man

Gee, what a generous offer from George W Bush!

I think we residents of Thailand should accept. We can open our own Guantanamo on Koh Samui and launch raids against terrorists in every adjoining country.

America will give us a big discount on missiles to bomb all these places that harbour terrorists... Oh yeah, America is the way to go! (By the way, I have some cheap swampland over by the airport for sale... Want to get in on a good thing?)

BKK RESIDENT

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Pity man's best friend

Postbag of May 19 carried a letter from "Taxpayer" regarding the need for investing huge sums in implanting chips in stray dogs.

We from the "farang community" also observe that if dogs were allowed up to condos, then you would not have as many strays downstairs. Funny, the poor hawkers at the marketplace are the ones feeding these souls, man's best friend, while the rich are more likely to feed them kicks.

Or perhaps they spend the millions on condos for the young generation who are mostly career-driven and need a "companion" in their studios?

In the future, youths in Thailand won't be able to love their pets without furtive bags and covers on them when they go into elevators. Thailand is known as a pet-friendly country - until we land here.

Dogs can help sniff out contraband and act like therapeutic pacifiers for the ageing population who don't have proper social security benefits. It is a pity these creatures are needed only up to a certain point.

EXPAT OBSERVER

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It works, sometimes

I will be the first to admit that I don't know whether the army got their money's worth when Gen Saprang's cousin worked for them, but it certainly sounds to me like he was a qualified individual and since this was a top-secret operation, it hardly sounds like it was feasible for the army to have shopped around for the best PR firm in Thailand to get their money's worth. I don't like nepotism either, but sometimes it does work out. JFK was severely criticised for making his brother Bobby an attorney-general,. But as far as I can see, Bobby Kennedy was one of the best attorney-generals the US has ever had. And JFK also appointed another relative, his brother-in-law Sargent Shriver, to be the first head of the Peace Corps, and that worked out very well, too.

A READER

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Not the done thing

Your cartoon on Tuesday showing the four stages in the development of the Songkran celebrations, apparently needs to be updated to include a new, fifth stage.

On numerous occasions during the excessive (and excessively long) water madness in Pattaya, I have observed both farang and Thais urinating in the storage compartments of their water pistols and then firing the contents at any innocent bystander they could find.

DISGUSTED

Bangkok Post

Last Updated : Saturday April 21, 2007

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