OPINION

Pesticides betrayal

Re: "HSC eases its farming chemical ban", (BP, Aug 31).

The government's Hazardous Substances Committee has completely betrayed the people of Thailand by its decision to allow the continued use of the extremely toxic chemicals glyphosate, paraquat and chlorpyrifos on fruit, vegetables, herbs and major agricultural commodities, which taken together make up the vast majority of land under cultivation. This decision was made despite overwhelming evidence that these substances have catastrophic effects upon the environment and lethal consequences for people.

Everyone knows why this decision was made and those responsible. Let it be said that the word disgraceful is far too inadequate to describe it.

It is with a bit of a smirk, (sorry folks, can't help it), every time I read or hear police comments that a tourist is besmirching the country's reputation, by claiming rape, robbery, murder, etc was an imagined event. Of course Thailand is a perfect nirvana where there are simply no tourist rapes, no tourist murders, no tourist grand thefts, and of course, no prostitution in Pattaya either. It's all made up, to "besmirch" Thailand's reputation. It is always the same old story, (SOS), claimed by the boys in tight brown uniforms with protruding bellies, "It hasn't happened".

I think this litany has been repeated so many times that there are more smirkers than believers.

Why do so many tourists die in Thailand? The latest we know about was of an Irishman (BP, Aug 31) and the police 99.9% of the time never solve the cases. Why?

Stuart Davie's Aug 30 letter on the face of it is not unreasonable. His request that the tourism authorities of Thailand highlight where in Bangkok the red-light districts are located. His point is that many tourists visiting the City of Angels do not want to stay in hotels located near the so-called places of entertainment, especially if travelling with children. I can see that this, if carried out, could pose a problem for the local authorities who constantly remind us that prostitution in Thailand is illegal. I would like to suggest another way for Stuart and anyone else, for that matter, to gain the knowledge and at the same time save the embarrassment of the local authorities, and that is to google the locations. They will find a very comprehensive list of their locations and a local map of how to get there.

I retired to our place upcountry outside of Phitsanulok after donkey's years of being a teacher at one of Bangkok's top international schools. Now, there are plenty of chores and projects to keep me busy, but I thought about volunteering a couple of hours a day at the local government school.

But, I can't. Why? The rules say so. Here in Thailand a person residing with a retirement visa is not allowed to work nor volunteer. So about two kilometres away sits a rural school lacking in funds and teachers. And I can't go there and help. For free.

The Thai government does not mind if I raise money for improvements for the local school, which I have done in the past. These donations are accepted, I just can't teach in the classrooms that have been built.

Yes, I could go under the table, but there is always the risk of running afoul of the Thai immigration. If they wanted to, I could be asked to leave Thailand and I'm not taking that chance.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp/Fox News was the beginning of the extreme polarisation we see today in US politics. Donald Trump and his supporters are merely the symptom. Fox and right-wing media are the disease.

Fox sows misinformation, hate and fear, packaged as "news" to push a political agenda that will drive fearful viewers/voters to the polls. Studies show that Fox viewers are consistently the most ill-informed viewers of all major media. The UK banned Fox because their news oversight committee Ofcom, found that 68% of the time, what they say on Fox is "not truthful, pushes own agenda, attempts to mislead people with fiction".

If you ever had a political conversation with a Fox viewer, you know what I mean. It's really embarrassing and there is no use talking with them. They dwell in an alternate reality of fake news and right-wing conspiracy theories. Sadly, the loyal Fox viewers only trust Fox and swear 99% of the legitimate news is fake.

The Western media, including The Wall Street Journal, continue to accuse China of harassing the Muslim Uighur in Xinjiang. The Chinese way of taming these problem Muslims has been very effective and limited the loss to a minimum while Western countries have faced abysmal losses of money and lives, eg the Sept 11 tragedy. One of the US presidents even supervised the assassination of a Muslim terrorist by himself but still fails to suppress them.

May I suggest that the Western world learn this trick from the Chinese, not condemn them.

It is a rare occasion when I agree with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. But I find myself exceptionally in perfect agreement with Mr Duterte over his opposition to the proposed sale of F-16 fighter jets by the US to the Philippines (Asia Focus, Aug 27). The F-16 fighters would serve no useful purpose in the Philippines' defence system at this time.

What the country currently needs are attack helicopters and drones to combat the again-growing domestic communist insurgency and the rise of IS-inspired jihadists. Also urgently needed are modern Coast Guard cutters, patrol boats and early-warning radar planes to stem further unlawful Chinese advances into the territorial waters of the Philippines and illegal claims of sovereignty over international waters in the South China Sea.

Sadly, while President Duterte is totally correct in refusing the offer of American F-16 fighters, he has apparently succumbed to the all-too-common affliction of "submarine love" and is reportedly now in discussions with Russia to purchase one or more of these costly, but useless, toys for the Philippine navy.

Why is everyone acting as though John McCain was such a hero? He was one of the most pro-war members of the Senate and he lied before the American people about Saddam Hussein posing a grave threat to America. That in turn led to one of America's most disastrous wars in history.

And who can forget when as a presidential candidate he picked a total moron to be his running mate in order to placate the Christian Right. If McCain, who was in bad health at the time, had been elected president and then died in office Sarah Palin would have become the president of the United States.

If McCain's friends and relatives want to pay tribute to him I totally respect that. But he was not a saint.

News reports about Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc sending his messages of condolence to the McCain family and US Senate leaders -- to convey his respects to the late senator -- say so much about what high regards the Vietnamese have for McCain.

John McCain was not only a war hero: He was a champion of peace as regards the post-war US-Vietnamese relations. McCain (a Republican senator), and John Kerry (a former Democratic senator) played important roles in the normalisation of the US-Vietnamese bilateral relations in 1995.

And as a side note, while the US and the rest of the world call the 20-year war in that country "the Vietnam War" -- the Vietnamese have a different name for it. They refer to it as "the American War" to this day.

The issue that many cultures and countries are facing is the legalisation of marijuana. The question posed on a social level is "should we legalise it?" The debate starts at this point. The real question though should be "Why is it illegal?"

Marijuana has a long cultural history of usage here in Thailand and can be found in many of the older recipes for traditional dishes and shamanic medicines. It became illegal in the 1970s due to political pressure from the US. It is strange that in a country that prides itself on never being colonised, it accepts Western prejudices without really examining them. Marijuana was made illegal in the US for political and economic reasons, not for health and safety.

The economic pressure was to preserve the wood industry and using wood pulp to create paper products. Hemp was seen as a competitive threat to many financial interests.

Remember that I am discussing usage, not abuse. With regards to marijuana, nobody has ever died from smoking it. There are no deaths attributed to sensible usage, so why ruin someone's life with prison and punitive actions for doing something that is not harmful by itself?

There is plenty of research that shows there are multiple health benefits from this plant. The latest study in the Lancet on alcohol usage reveals that there are no "safe" levels of alcohol consumption.

If alcohol is allowed and promoted in most cultures and countries and it is commercialised so much that it is an economic factor yet there are no health benefits, why is this allowed to continue and marijuana is banned?

Re: "Pakistan in ruins", (PostBag, Aug 17).

Just when it looked like that Andy Leitner had gone the way of the dodo bird and left the country, he crops up again with, not surprisingly, another anti-Islamic letter.

At least this time, the focus of his protests are the Pakistanis, and not the Palestinians, as has been per usual!

Now, while he does have a point that Muslim people have recently been making lots of trouble throughout the world in the name of religion, I think he should admit that the Kashmir problem is caused just as much by, if not more, by the Indians.

Furthermore, even though the above is correct in stating that the Pakistan economy is not something to be admired, the fact remains that the economy of democratic India is not really doing any better. India is still a country beset by stubbornly high rates of poverty.

Anyway, it is good to see that Mr Leitner is still around; let's hope that he uses his intellect to discuss other matters of pertinent interest in the future, instead of being obsessed with the terroristic tendencies of the followers of Islam.

In light of Donald Trump's apparent disdain for all things Muslim, apart from oil dollars, isn't it ironic that one of his favourite terms is the Arabic word "tariff"?

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