HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

DWP, visas, and Jomtien

Re Junk science of manmade global warming

Traffic lights on the new Railway Road

The time to wake up has passed

Absolutely no justification for this iniquity

More on the global warming debate

Re NI payments

DWP, visas, and Jomtien

Dear Editor,
The Department for Work and Pensions handles all UK pensions queries; people should check out their website if they have any.
I read in this week’s Pattaya Mail that certain visas are free? All I know is that a 90 day non immigrant visa acquired in the UK will currently set you back 45 GBP (45 pounds).
And lastly, as a part time resident in Jomtien, I think it’s another nail in the coffin for this town if they don’t go ahead and finish building the shopping mall. I don’t know why they’ve stopped work on it. Is it the recession or pressure from local businesses who will be hit hard if a Tesco Lotus-type operation springs up?
Instead of pushing up more and more condo blocks, people with money and influence should be looking at how they can make the promenade a less depressing place to walk and sit on, and get rid of most of that beach paraphernalia, it’s an eyesore.
Philip Fletcher

Re Junk science of manmade global warming

Editor;
Bob once again jumps into the “great global warming” debate, explaining how there really isn’t any rise in sea levels around the world. Unfortunately he is dismissing the ‘alarmists’ while paying no attention to the established facts.
Bob, of course your friends are not going to see huge changes in sea levels. Why? Because there are no huge changes evident. The problem is the rise is a little too slow for visual measurement over the couple of years you have been traveling the globe on your debunking mission.
If you care to check some established facts, rather than popping down to the beach and enquiring if anyone has noticed any changes in the last couple of days, then maybe you would change your tune slightly ... then again maybe not.
According to all established studies the world sea level has risen consistently in the last 10,000 years, most current empirical data shows that the rise of around 7 inches over the last century is about right. Yep, 7 inches per century! So unless your friends are named Dorian Grey, I seriously doubt they would notice any difference anyway.
While I agree that some of the more alarming projections cannot be supported by any facts, that does not mean the seas are not rising. Take some time to check world climate reports, which deal in hundreds of years, not hundreds of hours.
The fact that this is happening so slowly gives naysayers like yourself a feeling of “it wont happen”, or maybe “I’m alright jack”, but it is happening and future generations will have a much harder time dealing with it due to inaction now.
Regards,
Freddie

Traffic lights on the new Railway Road

Dear Editor,
Aiden Manners in his August 7 letter to Mailbag is correct - the traffic generally moves much better with the lights flashing red - i.e. ‘switched off’. This can also be seen at the Third Rd and Soi 17 intersection where the traffic flows well when the lights are flashing, even in peak hour. I videoed this intersection for five minutes during peak hour, with lights ‘out’, last week; there was very little disruption. When the lights are ‘working’, however, traffic becomes bottlenecked for a large part of the day.
The reason for the bottlenecking is the four phase traffic light system; having three legs of a simple intersection red lighted, with only the fourth leg green; rotating through four phases, then starting again. This means that each leg can only get about a 20% chance at a green light. On Railway Road when the lights were working, and the traffic was light, many vehicles just ignored the red, due to the long timing. Conventional (two phase) traffic light systems can offer up to 45% chance of a green light; with a major and a minor road intersection & appropriate timing, the percentage can go considerably higher. Yes, most of Pattaya’s traffic jams are caused by sub optimum light timing, halving the capacity of the intersections.
The justification for four phase timing is that it allows for right turns; however, it also has a higher need to allow for right turns, due to choking the intersection in the first place. It has also been said by traffic officials that Thais understand the 4 phase timing. However, they also understand 2 phase and 3 phase timing, as all exist in Thailand.
We need to build as efficient a system as possible to expedite commerce and tourism, with minimal waste of time and fossil fuels. That will give a better experience for our tourists and hopefully more will return; they don’t come to sit in traffic jams. Unfortunately we just can’t cope with many more, without exacerbating the traffic problems, at the moment. At a public meeting re the traffic situation about 4 years ago in Pattaya it was moved as a matter of urgency to implement two phase timing.
I suggest the lights along the Railway Road be the initial candidates for two phase timing, followed by all lights on Third Road. It will simply be necessary to put up banners advising ‘Be alert - changed traffic conditions ahead starting 01 / 10 / 09’ e.g., in Thai and English, etc, to alert drivers.
Stuart Saunders,
Pattaya Progress Association

The time to wake up has passed

Editor;
Please pass this along to the mayor: Dear Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome; Please, when you have a spare moment from all your hectic activities could you drive from the traffic lights at South Pattaya Road and Pratamnak Road under the flyover to the top of Pratamnak Hill and down again towards the Macha Nu statue, turn left, drive past the tax office and onto the market, and then drive back again?
If that does not convince you Pattaya is a third world city then nothing will. The state of the road in places is disgusting and no one seems to care!
City Hall shows great disrespect and disregard for residents.
Mentally Pattaya is still a sleepy fishing village that has developed too fast for any proper planning or governance from the relevant authorities.
The time to wake up has long passed!
RW

Absolutely no justification for this iniquity

Sir,
British retirees should be grateful to Don Gillet (14th August) for highlighting the robbery carried out by the British government whereby our pensions are not index linked. Coupled with the effective devaluation of the British currency we are hit with a double wham!
There is, of course, absolutely no justification for this iniquity and the term ‘reciprocal agreement’ is nonsense and cannot be explained by either the government, Members of Parliament or the Benefit Agency.
I would like to point out to readers of the PM that [email protected] isn’t listed and that some of the other newspapers listed by Don will only publish exclusive letters. I suggest writing to your MP and to your local UK newspaper, if you have one. Others who can be written to are the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Minister of Works and Pensions. One could also write to our diplomatic representatives.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Nightingale

More on the global warming debate

Editor;
Bob, the Western world has been trying to set carbon emission targets and are actively chasing green fuels. To say that global warming is junk and that islands are not becoming uninhabitable due to climate change, and to quote Venice really shows how little you really know. Venice is having huge sums of monies spent on it to save it from flooding. England are talking about allowing the fenlands to be taken by the seas and allowing coastal erosion to take place as they can’t afford to save all the cliffs and low lying areas.
The Thames Barrier is nearly redundant and I have watched a news bulletin (all channels) showing the Royal Navy assisting islanders off their island. Also Sir Richard Attenborough has done many documentaries on the shrinking North Pole and the effect it’s having on the climate and the world’s animals.
Even this paper had an article about people planting trees as the King said they should to save the environment (I hope this is correct). Now everyone can look up facts and figures to make the other side look like lying loonies and I suppose the leaders who attended both G8 and G20 were just lying. Oh! And every time they tried to get agreement with the developing nations they had America thrown back at them. But luckily they came to an agreement. I will not get pulled into a tit for tat argument but if I see positive proof that global warming is a myth I would be open minded enough to believe it. But would Bob?
Wayne

Re NI payments

Editor;
In response to Des Gillet: you pay a N.I. contribution to: 1) Pay the pension while you are working age. This pays the pension for the retired. 2) For your health treatment and those unemployed or disabled who can’t work.
This payment isn’t like building up a pension, and the actual amount that goes to pension wouldn’t give you a very good pension in retirement. When I moved to Thailand I found out about this and accepted it wouldn’t rise each year. But I was also told that I wouldn’t pay tax on my private pension and when I was eligible for it I was taxed. I phoned up the tax office and was told that an agreement with Thailand now meant I had to pay the British Government.
Now pensioners in the U.K. get free health, free buses, winter fuel payment and many other discounts and if their pension goes below a certain amount they can get pension credits (extra money).
I have heard people moan about family allowances being stopped, no health cover and now pensions. You all knew what to expect and you made your decision. Take out a private health care, stop paying it and do you still expect health care? Live in the U.K. and you do, but don’t look into it. Go abroad for the good cheap live and then moan about it. It’s your own fault and you knew about it but still moved there. What right have you got to moan about it? No wonder the Aussies call us whinging poms. You chose it, you live with it.
Wayne
(Moved back to UK)

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