Earth Day 2000 Worldwide Campaign

Dear Editor,

I’m working as a volunteer at Earth Day 2000 Worldwide Campaign Network, United States. My job is contacting and campaigning environmental groups, public sector and companies in Thailand to organize activities to celebrate on Earth Day 2000, April 22. Are you interested in organizing any environmental activities to protect Pattaya beach? The message below is an invitation for you to join this big celebration. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail our staff at [email protected]. I am looking forward hearing from you.

Best regards,

Pasinee Napombejra

We are happy to invite you in honoring Earth Day 2000 event with us!

Earth Day began in the belief that people, working together, can accomplish extraordinary things. Earth Day is unique in that it links citizen activists across the world with each other while inspiring action on personal, community, national and international levels. Especially, the coming Earth Day 2000 event represents an important milestone of our efforts in environmental protection. The Earth Day 2000 Campaign is to link environmental groups around the world with each other for a shared celebration of the Earth on April 22, 2000. Over 1700 groups in 150 countries have already agreed to organize activities for Earth Day 2000 in their countries.

The Earth Day 2000 Campaign publicizes all projects and links groups to each other with our website (www.earthday.net), email bulletins, and newsletters (Worldwide Network Bulletin). Earth Day organizing is a great way to connect with environmental groups around the world and to tell people about your work.

We would like you to consider activities for Earth Day 2000. Earth Day events can be on any issue that is important to you, and can involve many different activities. To learn of the rich diversity of what other groups are planning for Earth Day, please see our website at www.earthday.net/worldwide.

Please send us the following information. Name, organization, address, postal code, country, telephone, fax, email, website, contact person, Earth Day 1999 event.

Also let us know if you have any questions. Thank you very much and we look forward to collaborating with you to transform how we live with the Earth and each other.

We also would like to learn more about your previous Earth Day experiences and we wonder how you joined, organized or heard of the 1999 Earth Day events in your community or other organization.

Earth Day 2000 event - Do you plan to develop projects for Earth Day? If you do, please share with us.

Sincerely,

Pasinee Napombejra

Earth Day 2000 Worldwide Campaign Volunteer

Earth Day 2000 Worldwide Campaign, 91 Marion St., Seattle, WA 98104 USA, Tel: 206.264.0114, Fax: 206.682.1184, Email: [email protected], Web: http://www.earthday.net/worldwide.

This account is maintained by Earth Day Worldwide Campaign Volunteers.

Congratulations to John Richards

John Richards.

Sir,

Congratulations to John Richards on a successful term as Rotary Club President. Its caring and hard charging people like John Richards that the Rotary Club will miss. His devotion to making Pattaya and Thailand a better place shows great credit to his character. His leadership abilities were second to none, a true testament of what it takes to get things done. Pattaya needs more people like you John.

Ryan Smith

Nebraska, USA
(Former Pattaya Resident)

Still having troubles with Loxinfo

Dear Sir:

I am writing in response to Mr. Freddie Clark’s letter last week regarding Loxinfo. My experience with Loxinfo has been quite different from Mr. Clark’s and his computer engineer friends.

I have been a subscriber to Loxinfo since I first got a telephone line to my home 18 months ago. At first I had very little problems, but the last 3 months have been a nightmare. I have only been able to use a fraction of the time I have to pay for per month, as I can only log on for a short time before being cut off.

I asked the local Loxinfo agent if there had been customer complaints about service, and he told me no, but he needed to change nodes on occasion when Loxinfo becomes overloaded. So I assumed it was my modem, and bought a new V90, which I needed anyway. I soon discovered that it was not my modem, as it depended on the time of day and which node I dialed up. I now have to use all three nodes and cross my fingers. I feel very fortunate when it only takes me a few attempts to log on, and then I don’t know how much time I have before being booted off.

I have tried INE, which does not have a V90 support, but I am able to log on at a rate 2/3 the speed I get from the V90 node at Loxinfo, at least according to my browser. I tried downloading a 5mb software patch, first on Loxinfo, because it is faster. I was booted off after 15 minutes before finishing. I then tried INE, which seemed to download much slower, and after 35 minutes I timed out with only 3mb downloaded. I went back to the Loxinfo node and downloaded 5mb in 20 minutes. The calculated average download rates were 3 times faster on the Loxinfo node, therefore the log on rate seems irrelevant if there is much difference in bandwidth, although computer Engineer Mr. Clark may dispute this.

So now I have a choice between very slow reliable service or fast unreliable service, unless of course I want to log on in the middle of the night.

I have since talked to several other people, who have had similar experiences. I have yet to meet to meet the happy satisfied customers Mr. Clark and his friends seem to be. I don’t know where they received their credentials, but I received mine from a University (although not in computer science, as it was called at the time) where I had to learn Fortran and first started programming main frame computers using punch cards, then monitor terminals came along and saved a lot of trees. I’ve continuously used PCs since 1984. If he cares to meet or contact me, I would be more than happy to debate the virtues of Loxinfo. If I’m doing something wrong, I’d like to find out so I can be a happy satisfied customer also.

My contact is [email protected].

Sincerely,
Art Savacool

Upcoming Lunar Eclipses

Editor;

Hello from Seattle,

Washington, USA!

I read with interest the fine article "The last solar eclipse of the millennium" by Elfi. Very well done. However, may I remind your readers that there are also lunar eclipses waiting for us as the current millennium closes. They will be:

28 July 1999 at 11:34 UT
21 January 2000 at 04:43 UT
16 July 2000 at 13:56 UT

UT stands for Universal time

Yes, these are all within our current millennium. Although many seem to be under the misapprehension that the current millennium ends this year, clearly that would make the millennium only 999 years long. A millennium is 1000 years long. The year 2000 is the last year of the current millennium just as 10 is the last in a decade and 100 is the last in a century.

I enjoy your electronic newspaper.

Dr. Dennis Regan

Difficulties gaining a visa to Norway

Mailbag,

Norway a tourist country? Yes, for first countries but obviously not for third-world countries like Thailand. I am a Norwegian but ashamed of how four Thai friends of mine where treated when they wanted to go on a 14 days holiday to Norway the 17th of May, which is the Norwegian Independence Day. The four people were a family, with two mothers and two kids, and they had a bank guarantee for more then half a million baht. They also had an invitation from a doctor in Oslo who’s earning a year is more then two and a half million baht.

Nevertheless, the application was sent to Norway and it has taken over two months till now and they are still waiting for an answer. When they call the embassy and complain they say you should have applied a half year ago.

An Englishman living in Thailand applied at the same time and he got his tourist visa in 3 days without invitation and guarantee.

I think Thailand should do something about the way Thai people are treated as tourists, especially to Norway. Shame on Norway and the embassy in Bangkok!

Hans Chr. Bernhoft
Soi Bongkot, Pattaya

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Updated by Chinnaporn Sangwanlek.