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Letters published in the Mailbag of Pattaya Mail
will also be on our website . It is noticed that the letters herein in no way reflect the opinions of the editor or writers for Pattaya Mail, but are unsolicited letters from our readers, expressing their own opinions. No anonymous letters or those without genuine addresses are printed, and, whilst we do not object to the use of a nom de plume, preference will be given to those signed.
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Tough times lead to robbing the inocent
Dear Editor,
Last October you were kind enough to write a feature on my daughter, Maria, in connection with the AIDS syndrome. Just two weeks ago you published my letter on her current situation.
Last week my wife Nim had cause to return home to Buriram and took Maria with her.
On a visit to a market with Maria, Nim was approached by three Thai women and was struck on her foot by some sharp object.
She was almost immediately induced into a severely drugged state and remembers little of what happened in the next six hours or so.
The three women took my wife to a large Buddhist temple in a collapsed state and then removed all the gold from her person. The value of this gold was in excess of some 40,000 baht.
The women attempted to remove the gold from our baby but ran off when she started to cry.
Regrettably, no monk approached my wife and it was a considerable time before she recovered and was able to return home to her village.
Nim was in a too distressed state to report this awful incident to the Buriram police and perhaps you may consider it appropriate to advise the local police what happened to my wife and daughter.
In the current economic climate there are many people out of work in the Buriram area and this crime appears to be a direct result of this situation.
It saddens me to realise that could have happened but to know what depths have been reached against a mother and baby is a shocking indictment of the Thai character.
Such incidents are common-place in your columns but when it happens to your own only then do you realise the terrible under-lying nature of this attack.
I am only so relieved that Nim and Maria are now back with me and are well again.
Yours sincerely,
John Hopkins
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Dear Sir,
Amazing Thailand it certainly is! In the last ten days or so I have been witness to several quite amazing occurrences or sights.
I was following a car up a soi heading towards Third Road when, about 60 meters before we reached the junction, the driver of the car indicated that he intended to turn left. Much to my amazement the car did turn left onto Third Road. A couple of days later I saw an even more astonishing event. A motorcyclist actually stopped at a road junction (he was on the minor road), looked both ways and then proceeded on his journey when he saw it was safe to do so.
(On the other hand, I have also watched in disbelief as motorcyclists have performed non-driving tasks such as combing hair and picking facial spots as they sped along at 60 plus KPH).
Last week in Lotus Superstore I was flabbergasted to observe a customer being turned away from the "less than 10 items" cash desk because her trolley contained considerably more than ten items. What IS happening in Thailand?
But perhaps the most astounding event happened to me yesterday evening (July 4th). I switched on my TV at 9.40 and tuned into BBC. Good old Sophon Cable provided me with a beautiful picture but no sound. I especially wanted to view a program at 10.05 about the history of civil aviation in Hong Kong. It would have been pointless to view it without sound. What to do? Cursing myself for being an incurable optimist, I phoned Sophon on 423 777 and, in my very halting Thai, told the man who answered that there was no sound on BBC. He said, "OK no problem" and put his phone down. Fifteen seconds later my TV screen went blank, and fifteen seconds after that both the picture and the sound returned. I mouthed a silent thank you to the nice Sophon engineer and sat down to enjoy "Wings over Hong Kong".
If it is that easy to restore sound to BBC, why can’t Sophon maintain it throughout the day? Maybe if more people phoned 423 777 when there was a problem with Sophon reception then there might be fewer problems in the future. Or is my optimism now running totally out of control?
Yours sincerely,
Oliver W. Minto
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Gracious welcome for Cobra Gold
Dear Editor,
Last October you were kind enough to write a feature on my daughter, Maria, in connection with the AIDS syndrome. Just two weeks ago you published my letter on her current situation.
Last week my wife Nim had cause to return home to Buriram and took Maria with her.
On a visit to a market with Maria, Nim was approached by three Thai women and was struck on her foot by some sharp object.
She was almost immediately induced into a severely drugged state and remembers little of what happened in the next six hours or so.
The three women took my wife to a large Buddhist temple in a collapsed state and then removed all the gold from her person. The value of this gold was in excess of some 40,000 baht.
The women attempted to remove the gold from our baby but ran off when she started to cry.
Regrettably, no monk approached my wife and it was a considerable time before she recovered and was able to return home to her village.
Nim was in a too distressed state to report this awful incident to the Buriram police and perhaps you may consider it appropriate to advise the local police what happened to my wife and daughter.
In the current economic climate there are many people out of work in the Buriram area and this crime appears to be a direct result of this situation.
It saddens me to realise that could have happened but to know what depths have been reached against a mother and baby is a shocking indictment of the Thai character.
Such incidents are common-place in your columns but when it happens to your own only then do you realise the terrible under-lying nature of this attack.
I am only so relieved that Nim and Maria are now back with me and are well again.
Yours sincerely,
John Hopkins
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Editor,
I feel that this story should be brought to the public as it is a good example of how people are treated in the French embassy in Bangkok! I am in France at the moment to follow the soccer world cup and I have tickets for the semi finals as well as for the finals. I have a female friend in Bangkok (not a bar girl, she holds a Masters Degree in BA from a US University and holds a valid Visa for US) who really wanted to watch the finals and I am in the lucky position to have another ticket which I would have happily given to her! When she called the French Embassy, they told her about the many things they need. I understand about a Bank statement, which she had, also about a French guarantee person which she also had, only as there is not enough time, she could not give them the original letter from her friend but he would have sent a Fax to the Embassy. The (Thai) visa officer told her that this is bad luck, they only accept original documents. Well, then she told her that she just got the ticket for the finals and that she badly wanted to see it. They said that she had to show them the original ticket in that case, but how can she if the ticket is with me in France? I think that this is not a very good promotion of France, my friend has all her family here, a bank statement that shows more then enough funds for the trip! I see no reason why they can not grant her this visa. Anyway, maybe the Visa regulations for French citizens who come to Thailand should be adapted to this very unfriendly behavior! Maybe you can print this letter to show other people who also have experienced the same problems that their case is not the only one!
Kindest regards
Sigi Brandstaetter
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