HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Exchange rate

Buildings on the Seaside of Walking Street

Eating meat and smoking

Smoking in the park

Capitalism vs. Socialism

Exchange rate

Dear Editor,

I’m a part time resident of Jomtien. I was hoping to make it full time in the not too distant future, but I’ll have to put this on hold until the exchange rate for the THB and the GBP improves a lot. I don’t want to live there unless I can get at least 60 baht to the pound. It’s not as if your money goes anywhere, how ordinary Thai people are coping with inflation must bee a big problem.

And Thailand has more social problems than the UK, so how come its currency is getting stronger and ours is getting weaker? We’ve finally got a new government here in the UK so maybe matters will improve.
Phil Fletcher-Stokes
(Suffering from the English climate right now)

Buildings on the Seaside of Walking Street

Editor;

Regarding JC’s moan about the buildings on the Seaside of Walking Street; I first came to Thailand in 1989. These buildings were there in some form or another. I remember the courts decision some 14 years ago. Since then the businesses on that side of Walking Street have brought a great wealth to the local government. They add to the ambiance in the locality and attract tourists to their many good establishments. Without them what “new business” would attract the amount of tourists as they do now? You remind me of the person who builds a house next to an airport and complains about the noise.

About the government, I presume you are a falang, so let the Thais run their country their way.

BP

Eating meat and smoking

Dear Editor:

I agree with Laurence Remington (Mailbag, May l4) that since smokers cost the health care system an enormous amount of money they shouldn’t complain about paying higher health insurance rates.

But why stop there? Since eating meat is an even bigger cause of heart disease than smoking why don’t insurance companies require cholesterol tests and charge those with the highest cholesterol the highest insurance premiums?

While meat eaters always tell me to mind my own business, if I have to pay for their diseases with higher health insurance rates it is my business!

And while I’m at it, as an American I have to pay higher taxes to subsidize the meat industry and thus I’m paying for their (meat-eaters) meals. In fact it’s been estimated that without government subsidies Americans would be paying $35 for a pound of hamburger meat!

So while both meat-eaters and smokers tell everyone else to leave them alone, they want people like me to pay their bills. And that isn’t fair!

Eric Bahrt

Smoking in the park

Dear Sir;

I do not want to labour this issue too much but I am now convinced that tolerance seems to have gone out of the window. In your 14 May edition ‘Dr M’ advises us that a smoker in the park is polluting the air for around 100 metres or so. I can’t argue with that if the doctor has the proof, but I find the statistic a bit over the top.

However, when I was sitting in a baht bus at the crossroads at Tops in Second Road the other night - trying to be a good citizen using public transport instead of my car - I nearly choked to death from traffic fumes and it made me feel quite ill. I really mean that.

Can someone therefore please tell me, is not that other people’s pollution which is affecting me? How many of those vehicles pouring out fumes were driven by non-smokers?

When I go to the Thai buffet with my wife and someone has a cooker on the next table wafting loads of smoke over us, is that not polluting my air?

As for the smoking ban in bars, that’s fine. However, when I see people drinking beer after beer, and then staggering out to climb on motorbikes and into cars, is that not a danger to me, given I refuse to drink and drive?

My point is that the tone of many letters is obsessive and intolerant. My experience is that most people who smoke are considerate of others and we all have a responsibility to each other. I, like most contributors, deplore people throwing away cigarette ends carelessly, etc.

Please though, let’s not have double standards about pollution of other people’s air and risk to their lives. I would rather have someone smoking in a park than a half ton vehicle going down the same road as me with someone driving under the influence.

Consideration for others has to be the watch-word, not demonising certain groups.

Hopeful
Nongprue

Capitalism vs. Socialism

Editor;

In regards to the never ending debate on 2nd hand smoke from cigarettes, smoking in pubs, etc.

Get over it. Cigarettes & beer taste nice together, period. What is the overall trend? Ummmm most folks like to enjoy a bit of tobacco with a beer.

Capitalism says By-God, let’s put some ashtrays out there and make them feel welcome.

If you are offended by tobacco smoke then stay away from bars. If I am offended by go-go girls, well, guess what? I stay away from go-go bars. I don’t try to outlaw them.

Katoeys are disgusting to me, yet I accept that I cannot make them illegal... Guess what? I don’t spend money in bars staffed with katoeys. That is called capitalism.

To the weirdoes who worry about John Arnone polluting the air in some fictional park with his tobacco; people all over the world have been burning something to cook food since the dawn of time. You had to get on a bus or airplane to get to that idyllic beach. You just burned 8,000 units of jet petroleum, and now you are worried about air pollution.

Ken

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