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Erosion along the beach

More spilt milk

Travel woes

No hard feelings

Erosion along the beach

Dear Editor;
There are several “empty” plots of land in Ban Amphur which have their vegetation cleared periodically. Last Saturday April 25, the site adjacent to STS / Krisda and Sukhumvit Road was cleared, and on Sunday when it rained, much of the top soil was washed away into the sea. Not only did this deposit mud in the sea, it also eroded the beach and undermined the path along the beach.
A similar problem is occurring all along the beach. Surely the vegetation should be left to reduce the erosion by the rain?
Yours faithfully,
Susan

More spilt milk

Sir,
If, as a beer drinker, I advocated it on the grounds that it has been imbibed for thousands of years and is popular all over the world, I would soon be told that hops are poisonous and beer drinking can lead to prostate enlargement, liver disease, sleep disorders, obesity, heart disease and alcoholism. This information would be welcome: certainly not resented.
In these respects beer resembles milk, though I think it tastes a hell of a lot better than milk and, to the best of my knowledge, does not involve any cruelty - except perhaps to one’s liver!
As far as colorectal cancer is concerned, I concur with Mr. Bahrt that meat is a factor but feel obliged to point out that the main cause of this disease is refined foods lacking in fibre. This was ably demonstrated some fifty years ago by the eminent Dennis Burkitt who observed that diseases such as appendicitis, cancer of the colon, diabetes, obesity and heart disease were unknown amongst rural Ugandans living on a traditional diet. When they changed to a ‘Western’ type of diet these diseases started to appear beginning with appendicitis.
Regarding the title ‘Dr’, this has very little consequence especially in respect to nutrition. It hardly needed an insulting remark to emphasise the point. The word ‘evangelical’ is defined in the Concise Oxford Dictionary, which is one of the more reliable ones, as, ‘A writer of one of the Four Gospels; a preacher of the gospel’. Hence, I maintain that my use of the word oxymoron was reasonably correct. It also seemed obvious to me at the time that it referred to religion and not to ethnicity. It was, of course, a mistake because it enabled the discussion on milk to be hijacked and replaced by one that was completely irrelevant.
I am happy to leave it to the reader, for whose benefit letters are published, to decide who has been dreadfully rude, who has ‘talked down’, who has changed the goal posts and who has made unnecessary personal insults.
Dr. M.

Travel woes

Editor;
As a respected and well known teacher in Thailand, with children born here, I have long been an advocate for the courtesy and friendship of Thai people. My opinion was shattered tonight due to the appalling attitude of certain bus staff towards me and a colleague.
Finishing our day’s teaching in Sriracha, myself and a colleague boarded as usual the bus for Pattaya, known and treated well by most of the different bus staff. Not today, Songkran. We hit bad traffic in the early stages of Pattaya so the bus did a u-turn and eventually headed off up the main road to Rayong.
For the next 5 hours we circled around, back roads, stopping to let off Thai passengers. Finally we seemed to be going back to Pattaya and certain roads became familiar. We asked to be let off the bus but we are told, ‘No problem, stay’. So we did!
Finally, we arrived at some traffic lights and we are told to get off the bus. We ask where we are as this does not look familiar to either of us, but the sole response is ‘to get off’. We have no idea where we are until we see a sign that tells us we are 5.8 km away from Pattaya. We walked, unable to get transport initially. Then a songthaew offered to take us back to Pattaya Klang for 900 baht. We declined and after half an hour we were very tired and succumbed to transport at 800 baht.
Frankly, this disgusts me as we, farang, were obviously metered different treatment on the bus to the Thai passengers, some of whom expressed concern at our being there on the roundabout route.
Anyone considering a visit to Thailand should understand what they may expect. This is not the image that has been held of the Thai people but may be today’s reality.
Instead of a 40 minute journey home it took us 6 ½ hours and cost over 400 baht each. We give up our Sunday to teach Thais who cannot come during the week and this is our reward for doing so.
Dr John Ronald

No hard feelings

Dear Editor,
Eric Bahrt says I have not answered him intelligently! (Pattaya Mail 17/04/09) He calls hospital workers “monsters” for not giving him a credit account. He says that I am outrageous and ignorant because I dared to question the information he has garnered from the media. He is a vegetarian and he believes that none of us should eat meat. He thinks that cow’s milk is not designed for human consumption but cannot tell us what is (eggs, bird’s nests, roots, seeds, nuts?). He wants drunks and loutish people barred from entering Pattaya because they are a danger to motorcyclists. (Do you have a motorsai Eric?) Does anyone detect a pattern here?
Eric it is very difficult to have a reasonable discussion with a crusader who considers his arguments to be carved in stone and, much as I would love to carry on I now consider the issue(s) closed. I would also like you to ditch your friend who prefixes his name with “Dr” for definitely retarded! No hard feelings!
Best regards,
Dick Turpin

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