HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Dengue Fever in Pattaya

Eco disaster on Siam Country Club Road

Don’t belittle the problem

Financial scam?

I wasn’t knocking Thai nationals en masse

Enough of the baht bus nonsense

Dengue Fever in Pattaya

Editor;

I’m rather concerned at the moment about the presence of Dengue fever virus in Pattaya and the lack of information about it. In the last 2 months I know of 4 people who have contracted the disease, 2 of whom had not been outside Pattaya city limits - one a resident the other a tourist here for only 2 weeks. The others had recently moved out of the city up north.

This disease can be just a mild temperature or, at its worst, be fatal. In Australia there are awareness campaigns and eradication campaigns. Many other countries (e.g. Singapore) are also very concerned as this disease is on the increase and we haven’t even got to its prime time, the wet season yet.

I have heard virtually nothing from the Thai authorities; can anyone tell me what the local Pattaya authorities are doing about this?

Will Kelsall

Eco disaster on Siam Country Club Road

Dear Sir,

Siam Country Club Road near Wanasin Farm used to be one of the most picturesque areas on the outskirts of Pattaya; however, the surrounding area has become an environmental disaster.

The huge drainage culvert which has been installed under Siam Country Club Road, and connects with Wanasin Farm Klong, is flooding the downstream properties with stinking sewage!

Come the rain in May/ June and the flooding in this area will be very severe indeed, and not with clean rainwater.

Although the culvert was installed by Pattaya City it discharges into Nongprue. Both authorities have been notified on various occasions about this mess, with viable solutions, but have failed to act.

Do we really need to wait for catastrophic flooding; or maybe even then they won’t listen?

Sewer Rat

Don’t belittle the problem

Editor;

With the letter from “Paul (Brit) living in Naklua” (Pattaya Mail, Feb. 25) I think we saw another archetypical opining from an archetypical “frequent farang” on the baht-bus-scandal issue. That letter thusly contains the following archetypical ingredients: 1) a ridiculing of another farang over the righteous complaining that there is an organised illegal cheating of foreigners going on in the local transport business, 2) neglecting the importance of a basic moral principle, 3) irrelevantly mixing up the costs of comparable transports in a European country which has nothing to do with the matter in question, 4) pointing out how generous he is himself and that the matter is trivial to him and ought to be so to everybody else, 5) stresses the importance of forfeiting everything that is troublesome or unfair and just enjoy what else there is to enjoy in this world.

But, I say now, save us, or at least me, from this kind of ultimate bewildered ignorance, gullibility and nonsense! Please, Paul (the Brit), consider the following: The practice of not signing the prices on public transports in order to cheat any category of passengers is actually illegal, principles like “you should not kill/steal/cheat” are important in civilised societies, the amount of money acquired in this way could be very huge, the generous attitude of Paul the Brit is something both Thais and experienced farangs takes with a big grim laugh - the stand only helps to facilitate crimes and corruption against foreigners, and lastly Paul (the Brit) - complacency, indifference and light-mindedness is not a solution to anything serious.

Nils-A.A.

Financial scam?

Editor;

Borrowing and lending money in Thailand on short term, high interest rates appears to be not too uncommon. The tendency appears to be mainly amongst Thai nationals; however, many rumours abound where farang have also been involved.

In a recent case a local Pattaya law office was involved in borrowing money mainly from foreigners, rewarding them with a monthly return believed to be more than 1.5% and as high as 2%.

Not bad you may well think.

This money (reportedly) would then be loaned out to import / export businesses on the pretext of short term loans where there was not time to use the banks, e.g. bypassing the paperwork and time involved.

Then the bombshell - the “partners” not only skipped town but also skipped out of the country! I personally lost some 2 million baht.

Even with a contract and a signed cheque (rubber) in hand, what recourse could one take? Much more to the point, how many other people were involved and just how much capital? The local Thai police would indeed take up a one on one case I am sure, but how to find out the scale of this alleged “scam”?

That is the reason for writing this letter; if either you or a friend are involved then please write in strict confidence to [email protected]

Once the size of the alleged scam is estimated then as one of the alleged fraudsters is American, International Police (Interpol) may then be alerted in order to bring justice as deserved.

As for his Thai partner, it is hoped that the lady will be brought to justice for the entire crime - in Thailand.

All information received will be in the strictest confidence.

Terence

I wasn’t knocking Thai nationals en masse

Editor;

Well Mr. Robert Panticroft (Pattaya Mail Friday February 25th), you missed the point of my “jaundiced” view of the majority of Thai Nationals. I was referring specifically to Pattaya / Jomtien which I have come to know better than any of the more typically rural areas outside the touristy stomping grounds.

I have been coming here on holiday for about 20 years, visiting many other countries in-between, most times wishing I had come here instead of being where I was.

Luckily as a kid, being born in Rhodesia, into a rich tobacco farming family, we had a 6 week Christmas break every year in South Africa where my father was born, and as a consequence I never had any desire to visit British beaches even though I lived and worked in London for 40 years (in the Holland Park area so I know all about dry summers in Holland Park, Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, etc.).

Think I must have passed through Heathrow at some time or other, but having a pre arranged mini cab rather shielded me from the avaricious taxi drivers!

I will concede nowhere is perfect, and I stand by Joe Cummins writing in Lonely Planet which I quoted, “I feel very much at home in Thailand. The country has just the right combination of convenience and inefficiency. I also, in general, appreciate the Thais approach to life. I am widely travelled but have never found anywhere else in the world like Thailand.”

Lighten up Mr Robert, you obviously haven’t been disarmingly / charmingly ripped off by builders, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, et al, who have disappeared with the money given to buy materials up front, lucky you!

I had no intention of insulting the Thais as a nation, but hey, the badies seem to have congregated in Pattaya!

I love Thailand, I love the climate, I love my Thai friends, I love Thai food, I love Dongtan Beach, and now Chateau De Loei are producing quaffable Thai wine, why would one want to live anywhere else in the world?

RW

Enough of the baht bus nonsense

Editor;

If it wasn’t so sad, I would have laughed when I read about the rumour saying that baht bus drivers carry a stick with them to use on farang passengers who dare to pay the lawful fare for everyone of 5 baht. What utter nonsense. While I don’t carry a bat or a gun while in Pattaya, the baht bus driver who tries to assault me for paying the legal fare better have more than his wits and a bat.

If farangs are ever to be treated with parity it behoves them to act like adults. Stop the liberal hand wringing and refuse to pay anything other than what the Thais pay when they ride the baht bus. We have a duty as moral and just people, to educate other farangs who ride the buses. Don’t stand by with your mouth shut when you see a baht bus thief (driver) take a farang for more than the standard fare. Speak up.

While I might employ the image of Ghandi using the shear power of the masses of people to forward his just cause, I do not wish to take up walking the country on my own two feet. Instead, as Ghandi did in India so shall we the farang do in Pattaya - if we all stop overpaying it will cease. Most farangs don’t know what the truth is so educate them.

Choose the harder right, not the easier wrong.

Howard L. Bloom

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