Enforcing a request?

Editor;

Please help a poor confused Farang - In Pattaya Mail Friday May 13th - ‘Tuesday is Visakha Bucha day - Although not mandatory, the government is asking that no alcohol be served on this day and that all bars and entertainment venues be closed for 1 day. An unnamed police spokesman told Pattaya Mail that the police will strictly enforce this “request”.’

Just to reassure myself I Googled ‘Request’ and got ‘the act of asking for something to be done, especially as a favor or courtesy’. So? If a ‘Request’ is ‘Enforced’ it is surely not a ‘Request’.

Sorry - I forgot for a moment where I am living, have never been so happy and what the heck am I doing complaining about the difference between ‘Requesting’ and ‘Enforcing’ I wonder?

Hope all your readers have / had a very happy Visakha Bucha day.

Beat wishes,

RW

Police crack down on noisy vehicles

Dear Editor,

I was pleased to read the article in this week’s Pattaya Mail that “Pattaya Police are cracking down on noisy vehicles.” It progressively gets worse every year. I was not pleased, however, to read at the end of the article that the “official crackdown period ended April 29.” The numerous muffler shops along Sukhumvit Road would probably have petitioned the police to have the crackdown period ended.

An even greater and horrendous noise offence in Pattaya is this plague by young thugs installing huge speakers and amplifiers in the back of their pickup trucks and parking at night in residential areas playing their loud music well into 3 and 4 o’clock in the morning. Last night it ended at about 04:30. It is so loud around Bali Hai pier road and up next to Royal Cliff Garden Condominium and Sheraton Hotel that it is impossible to sleep. Why don’t they just put on earphones to listen to their music and let the rest of us sleep? Where are the police to control and eliminate this noisy plague?

RCG George

Traffic lights and road fatality problem

Dear Editor:

Since my first response regarding the operation of the traffic lights throughout town in December of 2010, it is sad to hear in your article April 22nd that this project is basically a total failure and waste of money. One doesn’t have to live or be Thai to understand where the problem laid. One wonders what could have been done with the one hundred and twenty plus millions that was spent on this disaster. Another disaster is the on going construction on the road in Jomtien, as is the project considering a tram around town. If history presents itself again and again this will be a disaster and waste of money too!

Chonburi panel tackles road fatality problems: Here again everyone knows what the problem is and who is responsible. The Thais are getting good like the Chinese in practicing the Art of War philosophy that when there is a problem just divert it to someone or somewhere else. “The commission subcommittees will gather accident statistics, determine the cause of smashups and the risk factors involved. Another group will work to prevent accidents by improving navigational information and minimizing that risk factor.” Before you spend all this money and time I will tell you like I told you about the lights! “It won’t help.” Go to Soi Nernplabwan and stand outside the police box passed Soi 8, and watch the driving habits. There lays your answer and when you realize it the question is whether you have the fortitude to do what is right throughout this city and set a example for the rest of Thailand.

But the real reality is in a year’s time we will still be talking about the same thing because doing nothing and continuing to accept the corruption while the population suffers and dies each day is easier than doing something. This actually comes from someone who wasn’t born but lives here who actually cares about Thai people and others.

Good luck,

Jeff Chumuchi

Agrees with Chatchawan Thongdeelert

Editor;

I wholeheartedly agree with Chatchawan Thongdeelert’s contention that Obec’s misinformed edict to merge 2,500 small primary schools will, in fact, prove to be detrimental rather than beneficial, regressive not progressive. Once again, autonomous decentralized authority and community decision-making involvement are keys to improved functioning and operational effectiveness in rural areas which need the most assistance but traditionally receive the least tangible support.

It is hoped that Chinnaphat Phumirat and the myopic superior powers that be will objectively review the already announced merger, instead allowing fair-minded public participation reconsideration, featuring freedom of expression input from village leaders, professional educators, parents and students to voice their concerns and choose what works best to meet their wants and needs rather than what’s most expedient from an exclusively Bangkok-centric fiscal viewpoint.

The most durable way to improve small community schools with dwindling enrollment is to narrow the urban/rural gap by broadening the scope from passive theory to active practice, offering hands-on training focusing on technical/agricultural/vocational education and job enhancement alternatives consistent with His Royal Majesty’s sufficiency approach to rural development. Success would depend less on standardized mindset testing, more on know-how readiness, problem-solving savvy, abstract/creative thinking, multilingual/multicultural multiversity and everyday coping and survival skills.

A cooperatively developed curriculum would stress functional communicative competence literacy, basic skills mastery and individualized IT-focused materials within a stimulating, discovery learning environment. In visits to more than 50 up-country schools with fewer than 120 students enrolled, I have personally observed some of the most caring, dedicated teachers who motivate and inspire their respectful students with one-on-one enabling reinforcement in order to become secure, self-confident global citizens.

Dr. Chanchai Prasertson

Death notice

We regret to announce that our dear friend, Joseph Neil Otter died last Friday, May 13th after an epic battle with colon cancer.

Besides the countless friends here and everywhere, he is survived by his wife, Nas, and children, Lisa, Irin, Chris and Eric.

His final rites will be held at Wat Thungklom Tanman in Nong Prue next to Chaknaak reservoir (see map) on Sunday, May 22nd in the early afternoon.

Jomtien’s Second Road to Nowhere

Phasakorn Channgam

It’s hard to imagine a more mismanaged public works project than the construction of Jomtien Second Road. Nearly 10 years after first funds were allocated, the road remains all but impassible with no one willing to step up and take responsibility for the failed pre-planning, labor problems, land purchases and schedule over-runs.

The 1.1 billion baht project has become the laughing stock of city improvement projects thanks to workers with a complete “mai pen rai” attitude toward working on “Thai Time” and officials unwilling to lose face by admitting their mistakes.

Had officials told the public the new road would take a decade to pave, perhaps no one would be upset. Surely, someone in the city administration or the project consultants or construction companies must have foreseen the hurdles they’d have to overcome in relocating power lines and water pipes.

Maybe not. Maybe the plan was to simply start digging, then worry about utilities once the first checks were cashed. Maybe that’s why the first construction workers simply walked off the job once it got too difficult.

Likewise, didn’t anyone gauge the opposition local residents and businesses might have to giving up their property to make way for the wider rode? The government has already paid out 606 million baht for land it needed, yet the job still is not done.

Those residents should have asked for more. After all, since the bulldozers started in 2005, Second Road has been renamed “Road of Seven Generations” by locals, with holes, mud, construction debris obstructing traffic and no sign anyone actually was working there.

Meanwhile, Pattaya officials, who live comfortably away from the dust, mud and potholes, have little to say other than “work is ongoing.”

Ongoing? Has Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome been to Jomtien lately?

Kunplome and other city officials were quick to descend on South Pattaya Road after last year’s decision to rip up the major artery just as high season began. The road was open again in two weeks and even Thappraya Road managed to get resurfaced within a month. Why are Jomtien residents such second-class citizens?

Kunplome may not have begun the Jomtien Second Road project but with elections next year, he may find the bungled thoroughfare may be his route out of office unless he and other local leaders stand up, take responsibility and finish the job.

Enforcing a request?

Police crack down on noisy vehicles

Traffic lights and road fatality problem

Agrees with Chatchawan Thongdeelert

Death notice

Jomtien’s Second Road to Nowhere