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Pedestrian aura

Save water, bathe with a friend

Crossed Words?

More on the disgrace at Dongtan Beach

Big black car

Pedestrian aura

Mailbag;
I see that ‘RW’ (Mailbag June17th) wants pedestrians to be more regimented and he blames them for traffic problems. Many farangs are wheeled beings who perhaps forget what it is like to be a pedestrian here in Pattaya.

This is advice which should be given to any farang who comes here with the intention of getting about by walking.

As you proceed, you may be thinking of your conversation last night, the friend you are going to meet and what you want to say to her or perhaps, what you are going to buy in the shop. Of course, it is not wise to be lost in thought. If you are just slightly attentive to your situation you will be aware of that space immediately in front of you where you are going to place your foot next. You probably consider this as your personal space. It is not your space. It is the motorcyclist’s space. If he chooses to pass by you ‘closely,’ he will use it.

There is also a space to your right and to your left. Should you need to side-step, to avoid a pothole etc., you could occupy one of these spaces. But don’t think for a moment that it is your space! At that moment a motorcyclist will pass you by - maybe on your right or your left, but using this space, because it is his!

Then there is that space you don’t see. Only those who follow you see it. It is immediately behind you. If you had reason to step backwards, you would fill this space. This too, is not your space. If you happen to have decided to come to a halt, it is quite likely that a motorcyclist will pass by you to your rear, using this space. You will say, “Lucky I didn’t step back.”

So your passage on foot calls for total awareness and is perilous to say the least. My message to Buddhists is that of course the air and space all around us in this world belongs to all of us - you, me and everybody else. But every person, as you know, has an aura. You know that invading a person’s aura is disrespectful. It is a form of personal assault. Motorcyclists would do well to remember this.
Jomtien Hotpapa

Save water, bathe with a friend

Dear Sir;
In the spirit of the type of thinking that has left the residents of Pattaya and the surrounding areas facing these critical shortages I would like to purpose the following solutions to ease the problem.

Firstly, conservation: since we either bathe or drink water, cut back on these activities, though not advocating less frequency, as water can be saved by sharing your bath with a friend, in fact many more friendships may then be formed!

If you substitute beer instead of water for your drinking, considerable savings can also be made.

We can also as residents increase the supplies available if every day before we go to work we fill a couple of buckets from the tap. A quick detour to the reservoir to empty them will soon see it full again with no worries about waiting for the raining season.
Ian Dean Iot

Crossed Words?

Dear Editor;

I have a simple enough life and my needs are few; my indulgences modest. A Sunday afternoon and I crave little but a quiet beer and a nice lunch in The Camel in Banchang. Following my repast I look forward to exercising what remains of my mind by completing the Pattaya Mail crossword.

May I use your letters page to thank you for Crossword 619 (Fri June 10). It took me but minutes to complete this week. Perhaps I am indeed the genius of my fevered imagination… But no! The clues appeared along with the answers!

I do hope that this was an error and not a slur upon the intelligence of your readership - we don’t need it made that simple you know.

However, I am grateful for one thing: I believe I never would have solved 24 Across: ‘Mother of Pearl’ (5 letters).

Keep up the good work on your esteemed publication. It is, unarguably, the ‘nacre’ of English language newspapers in Thailand.
Yours sincerely,
Carl Flanagan
Rayong

More on the disgrace at Dongtan Beach

Hi There Mailbag Editors;

Congratulations on printing the photo supplied by Richard Silverberg in the Mailbag 17th June showing the ever increasing rubbish piling up on the building site where workers are squatting at the main entrance to Dongtan Beach.

I wrote the following to the Environmental Office and the Mayor’s office and delivered to city hall, and the same to the Tourist Authority on Buddha Hill:

“Please could someone from either one or all of your offices visit the building site between Jomtien Complex and Dongtan Beach? There are workers’ huts almost to the pathway, and refuse is building up by the day.

It’s a disgrace to Pattaya, Jomtien and Dongtan Beach, and will certainly be a health hazard before long. I see no toilet facilities and certainly no refuse is collected.

There must be a record somewhere as to whom the building site belongs to and who are responsible for the sad state of the site.”

I pointed this out weeks ago to the city hall guys who patrol the beach with no reaction whatsoever, the same lack of interest from city hall and the Tourist Authority.

Add to this the water shortage, Beach Road mess and public bus fiasco, and while officials continue to seem incapable of achieving anything that amounts to very much, Pattaya and its environs will retain its Third World status.
Best wishes
Richard Walton

Big black car

This deaf-mute duke
This blind minister
Who how mighty high is he?
or just an arrogant commoner
for whose arrival no fanfare sounds?
“Out of my way!” he seems to say
taking precedence
His right by dint of size,
the show of power and wealth
But why the drive so hard
in car so soft and easy?
a highly polished monster
ever so discretely responsive
its engine-purring cruise
destined to stop
in an lonely place
Jomtien Hotpapa

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