HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Re: traffic lights at new railway road

Silencing the dreaded large-mouthed cleaner bird

Corrupt so called police

The debate continues…

Re: traffic lights at new railway road

Editor;
In response and for the safety of Aiden Manners and others (Pattaya Mail bag Aug. 7th), you better check those traffic lights again. Most, if not all of the lights in a North/South direction are flashing yellow, not red. What’s worse the locals seem to have no idea what flashing red or yellow mean. Many stop for the flashing yellow while others fly right through the East/West flashing red. You’re implying all the lights in both directions are flashing red makes too much sense. There is a lot of police chalk around these crossings. Be careful!
Scott Benson
Pattaya

Silencing the dreaded large-mouthed cleaner bird

Editor;
Silencing the early-morning twittering of the birds that have been sensible enough to escape Europe for the insect and fruit rich tropics, is the screech of the large-mouthed cleaner bird.
The inch of wood which constitutes the average hotel room door is as nothing to the permeating abilities of the call of the dreaded large-mouthed cleaner bird. She must ensure that her message, however banal or (I suspect rarely) important, is communicated immediately. The few metres of corridor which could be traversed to enable a quiet conversation in the ear of the other cleaner bird is a distance which is easier covered by a few decibels of screech.
“Guests? What guests? This, the hotel corridor, is our territory,” the screeches proclaim. Sleep is impossible for the unwilling recipients of this less-than-heavenly dawn chorus. Throughout the kingdom, regardless of star rating, this problem is blithely ignored by the blank-faced, but broadly-smiling receptionist who is unable, in fact unwilling, to comprehend or even acknowledge that there is a problem here to be tackled. Just another falang guest talking loudly at you in bad English and worse Thai while you think about what you had for breakfast, what you might have for lunch, how fat this falang is, why his breath smells so bad and his mouth is so big.
“Why-oh-why-oh-why can’t they shut up?” is the cry heard by the very tired tourist creature. Because they don’t care, they really don’t care – you’re just a falang (there really is no good translation of such an offensive label) who enjoys complaining and, without question, never, never, never justifiably.
Of course you could check out of the hotel, citing this as the reason for your departure. But where can you go, you and your poor long-suffering ears, when all around you from 5 star to minus 5 star the large-mouthed cleaner bird populates every corridor, every staircase, every hotel of every soi, every thanon, every tambun, every amphur in every inch of the large-mouthed cleaner bird’s kingdom?
Silencing the early-morning screeching of the large-mouthed cleaner bird is the scream of the sleep-deprived tourist bird looking for a nest of serenity somewhere along the cacophony of the hotel corridor.
Colin

Corrupt so called police

Editor;
Within the past two days my family and I have been totally harassed by the thieves of the Nakon Sawan Police department! My wife and son were driving back from a visit to our farm in a little town called Lat Yao. During their return trip back to Pattaya where we have our home they were stopped by the Roadside Gang (Band of Thieves) and informed that our vehicle was under suspicion from Chonburi for drug dealing. This is a new truck that we bought back in February from Ford.
They were asked to vacate the truck as police searched it and low and behold the crooks produced some type of drug that they said was (planted) in our truck. My son and my wife were both arrested and taken off to jail.
After these so called police searched our truck and found our bank book and house and farm papers they naturally assumed that we were also money laundering. I am an American that has been in Thailand for 16 years married to a wonderful Thai woman and two beautiful adopted children. The strongest drugs that I take are aspirin, my wife will not even take that and both my children are as clean as a whistle. As far as the money laundering issue, I am an engineer that still works every day and I do earn a very high rate of pay that I have directly deposited into our joint account.
Simply because I am a high earner our home is paid, our car is paid, as well as our farm. All I am trying to do is provide a comfortable surrounding for my family. I should not be punished by the local Gestapo of Nakon Sawan. In order for my family to be released the thieves requested 100,000 baht. Yes, this is direct theft because someone has enough intelligence to earn more than the Band of Thieves.
We have hired a lawyer and some type of reprimand must be taken. I myself want their jobs and open apology as well as my 100,000 baht back. I am still working in Saudi Arabia and upon my return the thieves and I are not finished, something needs to be done to stop this kind of blatant theft. Any suggestions are welcomed.
Corruption in Thailand, how can that be? I will forward this on to my local papers in the USA as well as the Bangkok Post. It is time for the people to wake up and stop taking the crap that is dealt out by the police. If the officers can’t do better to earn a living than steal from honest hard working people, then take off their uniform and put on a ski mask. At least one would know what they are dealing with up front!
Name withheld

The debate continues…

Editor:
The masters of the “Junk Science of Manmade Global Warming”, Al Gore and other profiteers, want to change the world over their idea man is causing the world to heat up. One piece of proof that they put forth is that they claimed the mountain glaciers were shrinking and that global warming was to blame. Problem they have is that they are dumbfounded over the fact that glaciers are growing in the Himalayan Mountains.
A new study of the Karakoram, Hindu Kush, and Western Himalaya mountain ranges by researchers at England’s Newcastle University shows consistent recent growth among the region’s glaciers. Researchers found cooler summers are failing to melt winter snows, which are themselves becoming more frequent, resulting in advancing ice sheets. The study was published in the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Climate. No, this study was not financed by big oil companies.
The study puts another nail in the coffin of recent claims by global warming alarmists that global warming is causing dramatic shrinkage of Himalayan glaciers. A March 14, 2005 report from the activist group World Wildlife Fund (WWF) claimed, “Himalayan glaciers are among the fastest retreating glaciers globally due to effects of global warming.” The WWF said its report “reveals the rate of retreat of Himalayan glaciers accelerating as global warming increases.”
Importantly, noted WWF, the reported glacier retreat “will eventually result in water shortages for hundreds of millions of people who rely on glacier-dependent rivers in China, India, and Nepal.” With the Newcastle University study now validating the Insurance Digest report, National Geographic and others are doing an about-face, reporting the glaciers are growing rather than shrinking ... and blaming global warming for the growth of the glaciers. “Some glaciers in Pakistan’s Upper Indus River Basin appear to be growing, and a new study suggests that global warming is the cause,” reported National Geographic News on September 11.
And just as the media had previously reported shrinking glaciers would threaten the water supplies of hundreds of millions of people, they now claim the water supplies of millions of people are threatened by growing glaciers. In an August 24 article titled “Global warming boost to glaciers,” BBC News reported, “the findings are significant, because temperature and rain and snow trends in the area impact on water availability for more than 50 million Pakistanis.”
As usual, when the “Junk Science” wizards make an error, they correct themselves and magnify their errors. “These claims are incredible for many reasons,” said Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis. “First, the water supply doesn’t come from the glaciers. It is not glacial melt that feeds local water supplies, but the melt from annual snowfall. Annual snowfall is increasing in the region.
“Second, it seems that no matter what happens in the world, it is always claimed that global warming is to blame and that the change will be for the worse,” Lewis added. “That speaks to an agenda that will be asserted regardless of what happens in the real world.”
Lewis concluded, “Third, if shrinking glaciers create water shortages, as the global warming alarmists claimed last year, then how can growing glaciers create water shortages, as they claim now? The alarmists need to pick a story line and stick with it. Saying that anything that ever changes in the world is bad and is caused by global warming is scientifically suspect on its face.
“That is not how science operates, it is how propaganda operates.” The eco “Junk Scientists” such as Al Gore are profiting from the Manmade Global Warming Scare. When Gore left office in the year 2000, his net worth was 2 million dollars, now his Eco career has boosted his net worth to over 100 million dollars.
Bob,
Pattaya

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