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Pattaya is no place for seniors

Remembering dear friends

Congratulations

Pattaya is no place for seniors

Pattaya Mail Mailbag;

Pattaya is no place for seniors. (Academics called in to help solve social problems, Pattaya Mail, October 26) Since I have been living here I have seen few older people walking around, shopping, enjoying themselves. It is almost impossible for them to walk on some sidewalks (a stepladder is needed to climb some curbs) or cross the streets. There are no stop signs, traffic lights, speed limit signs. Using crosswalks is an extreme hazard. (I have seen some seniors get the finger trying to use a crosswalk.) And what’s more, motorbikes do as they damn well please. Can you picture seniors riding happily along on the back of baht buses?

There are no parks available at suitable locations. No peace and quiet under the shade of a tree. There is one park perched on the side of a hillside. The authorities forget to install a cable car to get up there. There are never ending construction projects. It’s impossible to sit on Beach Blvd. Even if there was no construction going on seniors would be appalled by the amount of exotic activity and the number of testosterone crazy rednecks. And music would be provided by a chorus line of screaming girls in bars across the street from the promenade. We must not forget to mention the skateboards, bicycles, joggers. Beach Blvd. is not quiet and it is not healthy. It is enough to make one irritable and emphysemic. Of course one could retreat to a wat but there is no quiet there - only a parking lot and loud speakers and boom boxes.

If that isn’t enough there are few nursing homes and retirement homes. There are no shuttle buses and meals on wheels. There are no senior discounts at movies and restaurants.

There are no senior appreciation days. Seniors need somebody to lobby for them at city hall. They need a powerful TARP (Thailand Association of Retired People). After a lifetime of service and drudgery they deserve better. Academics need to keep this in mind.

Senior Citizen

Remembering dear friends

Editor;

I would like to comment that it was with tears in my eyes that I read “Kidney Wipers” account of the recent “Remembrance Run” with the local Pattaya Hash House Harriers. Many of those remembered were dear friends of mine. Many of those accounted in the article are dear friends of mine. As I have lived in Pattaya for some 17 years or so, I look back on my Hashing days as some of the best days of my life. The friends I made with this group are not countable. One thing will always be true of Hashing, Once a Hasher, Always a Hasher. I am truly sorry to have missed the run, but truly thankful to the Pattaya Mail for publishing the “Scribes” weekly rantings.

Keep up the good work Pattaya Mail.
ON ON
Dr. Doom aka Randall Blacet

Congratulations

Sir,
As an ex-pat resident here in Pattaya for the past 12 years it is encouraging to see that the Pattaya Mail continues to publicise the terrible abuse of children in this city. There is no excuse for parents to take advantage of their children by selling them to sexual predators nor should the perpetrators who abuse these children be shown any mercy.

It is also encouraging to see that the Pattaya Police appear to be more active in attempting to combat the abuse of children and it is now hoped that with the two new police CCTV cameras located in Sunee Plaza now being actively monitored this will discourage the area from being the haunt for paedophiles that it has become over the past 10 years.

With the new initiatives being brought into action by the police maybe the city will lose some of the child predators who visit Pattaya to abuse children and those farangs who have taken up residence here for that purpose will also be brought to justice.

The Pattaya Mail is to be congratulated on reporting these terrible abuses. Also the police should be commended for increasing their surveillance operations in both the city and on websites that act as a magnet for these abusers.

Yours faithfully,
Richard Sanders
Jomtien

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