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An explanation of alcoholism
Dear Sir,
Having lived for many years with an alcoholic and spent time in several drying out clinics, psychiatric hospitals day centres, etc., I would like to share
with your readers some thoughts on alcohol, a drug which I consider to be one of the most insidious of modern times.
Many people who give up drinking are astonished to discover just how tedious is the barstool talk of their erstwhile friends: conversation which they had
until then taken to be the acme of intelligence and brilliance.
When they tot up the years they have spent listening and contributing to this drivel, they feel both ashamed and regretful. It is only when they sober up
that they realise what damage they have done to the people around them, what torture - often physical, always mental - they have inflicted on those who love them and to whom
they have a duty of care.
It is also only when they sober up that they understand that their alcoholism is the cause, not the consequence, of their problems.
Alcoholics are inclined to suppose that their waywardness is the response of a sensitive soul to the imperfections of the world, and by their biliousness,
turning their own small corner of it into a hell for others.
Alcoholism is not a sign of spiritual election, as the Calvinists once held economic success to be. The alcoholic fails to understand why his insults and
coarse language are not taken by others as charming unconventionality or exhilarating candour. At the same time, he is oversensitive to the slightest criticism, implied or
openly expressed, of his conduct. He is the centre of his own tiny universe.
He thinks his wife is quarrelsome: that it is her constant nagging that drives him to drink. He does not consider the possibility that his drinking is the
reason for her permanent dissatisfaction with him.
When finally his wife has had enough and leaves, he uses her departure as an excuse to drink yet more. He has no hesitation in telling his doctor that he
drinks heavily because his wife had left him, though on investigation it turns out that his wife has left him because he was drinking heavily.
The same reversal of cause and effect occurs with respect to financial problems and what is known as stress. An alcoholic will in all seriousness describe
the financial difficulties that have allegedly driven him to seek solace in the bottle, when the swiftest and easiest of calculations is sufficient to demonstrate he would
have had no such difficulties had he refrained from drinking.
Likewise, the other terrible stresses that supposedly cause him to drink seem perfectly ordinary and manageable in the cold light of sobriety.
The alcoholic wants to know why he drinks; was he not loved enough as a child? Is it because he carries within him a deep wound from his past? The problem
is that everyone bears such wounds. Is there anyone in the world whose life is so perfect that reason could be found in it to explain excessive drinking?
Alcoholics are not heroes. Their conduct is frequently revolting, as a brief visit to the casualty department of any hospital will reveal. They are rarely
witty while drunk, and often do things that make you wince. They give their children rotten anxiety ridden childhoods. They turn aggressive or violent at the slightest
pretext.
This does not mean that they are beyond hope or help. Their transformation on achieving sobriety is often moving to see. They have climbed out of their
personal abyss.
From personal experience I know these thoughts to be true.
Yours,
Bob Davis
Answers for complaints
To All of Us Who Find Things to Complain About:
I have just spent three months in Phuket and I am now back in the States on leave. I lived in Pattaya for three years, and when I return I will move back
to Pattaya. What I have “re-learned” these last few months is that despite all that we may all complain about, it is still a great place to live and we just need to try
and make it better.
David Levine
Dismantling of restaurants over the water
Editor;
I live in the UK and maintain contact through reading your fine publication on the Internet. I have visited Pattaya several times and hope to do so again.
I have found the restaurants which reach out over the water to be very attractive and interesting and am astonished that there is a plan to have this exciting feature of your
city removed. I regret that I have not read the arguments in this matter. If it is a question of safety then clearly corrections have to be made. If it is a question of
invasion of another person’s property then perhaps a financial arrangement can be come to. If it is a question of creating a walking beach - there are many more to be
found. Whatever the event it seems that something of value will be lost. Best of luck to all in negotiation!
Michael Round
England
Nighttime noises
Editor,
On the matter of the new regulations governing loud music at night, did the authorities overlook one point? If all is quiet at 2 a.m., do some people think
that it is then perfectly in order for discos etc. to begin having loud music after 2 a.m.?
At around midnight and a little later, before I fall asleep, all is quiet in the area where I live but I have been repeatedly awoken in the middle of the
morning hours (at around 3:00 or 4:00 a.m.) by a loud booming noise which seemed to me to be the heavy drum beat of music. (I then insert earplugs into my ears.)
Today I took a walk at around 9 a.m. when the noise was still going and I found the source. It is a rather new establishment off Soi Buakhao, almost opposite
Diana Estate and is a disco called BANN THEQUE. I can’t imagine how anybody inside would be able to tolerate the noise because the facade of the establishment was actually
rattling or vibrating from the grossly over amplified noise. The workers and regular patrons will no doubt all be prematurely deaf at a young age.
Must we who wish to sleep during nighttime hours suffer this? How good are the new regulations or how well are they being policed? If the authorities are
serious about the matter, then it seems to me that we need a roving noise control police squad out on the beat.
Enforced Insomniac
Open letter to the Electrical Generating Regional Authority
Dear Sir,
I am writing this letter because my and (my Thai wife’s) numerous telephone calls to the Electrical Generating Regional Authority have been met with a
variety of lame excuses, none of which make much sense. I am hoping that by publishing this letter it may generate (excuse the pun) some sort of a logical reply from a senior
member of the responsible authority.
I, like a growing number of people, live on a modern Housing Estate outside Pattaya City, about 8 kilometers off of the Siam Country Club Road. Every time it
rains, and sometimes even when there’s only a threat of rain, our electricity is cut, sometimes for up to 3 or 4 hours at a time. This, as you can imagine causes a great deal
of inconvenience and sometimes cost when fridges thaw out and contents spoil.
I ask, is it too much to ask in this day and age for something to be done to elevate the necessity for these electricity power cuts? I remember the days
about eight years ago - when a similar thing occurred regularly in Pattaya City itself. However, thankfully those days seem to be in the past. Having got over the need to
impose power cuts in the center of Pattaya, won’t it be nice if those of us who live a little outside the city were granted the same courtesy?
The Electrical Generating Regional Authority seem to be an enmity unto themselves, having forgotten that they are in fact paid public servants. Therefore, I
would challenge an executive from said authority to reply publicly to this letter with a logical explanation why we are made to suffer the inconvenience of these power cuts,
and to provide some positive remarks as to what is being done to prevent them from happening in the future. I am sure that the housing developers who are constructing ever
increasing numbers of villages, villas, and parks or whatever they like to call them, outside of Pattaya City will also be interested in the official response to this letter,
as public knowledge of these power cuts is spreading and is unlikely to make it easy for them to sell their houses because if it.
Yours sincerely,
Neil Stone
More mail problems
Dear Sirs,
I have to agree with the other comments from dissatisfied mail customers published in your paper over the past few weeks concerning poor mail service from
the Banglamung Post Office. Service at best is very sporadic and at worst, often subject to tampering and theft.
Postcards mailed from the U.S. will usually arrive within one week without problem, but any letter which may contain something of value usually never
arrives.
A Global Express Mail envelope with business papers was sent to me in Pattaya from the U.S. After waiting for three weeks, it still had not arrived, so I
initiated a search with the U.S. Postal Service. They provided me with tracking information showing it arrived in Bangkok three days after it was mailed. The U.S. Postal
Service would have to contact the Thai Postal Service for further tracking, but suggested I contact the local post office first. I went to the Banglamung Post Office and
registered an inquiry as to the whereabouts of the GEM envelope. I also informed them I was initiating an inquiry with the main Bangkok Post Office where the GEM envelope had
been tracked as arriving over three weeks prior. They had no knowledge of it arriving, but would look into it. Low and behold, it was delivered the next day. It was stamped as
having arrived in Banglamung two days after it arrived in Bangkok and had been obviously opened and then re-sealed with tape. Luckily there were no valuable contents inside and
nothing was missing.
Maybe if enough people complain the service will improve!
Hoping for improvement,
Kim Johansen
Highway Robbery 2
Editor;
I would like to add my experiences to the letter about highway robbery by Mr. G.E. Scholetter in last week’s Pattaya Mail. I was also stopped at the now
almost permanent checkpoint on Sukhumvit Rd. on the other side of Lotus Department Store. I was accused of not wearing my seatbelt and if I would be so kind to hand over 200
baht. I looked at this member of Pattaya’s finest hoping to see some kind of identification, like his number or badge, but neither one was present. I told him that I was
willing to pay him as long as he was willing to give me a receipt. He said that it was not possible because he claimed receipts are only issued at police stations.
Realizing that he did not have an easy victim he reduced the price to 100 baht. In the meantime he wanted to see my license, which he found in order and he
also noticed that I reside in Pattaya, which was not very comfortable for his action. Smelling problems he backed of and told me to proceed with no fine.
My advice is: don’t be intimidated and stick up for your rights. In talking to Thais about this incident I was told that it was better to pay, but
according to me, this is the reason corruption destroys this beautiful country. If only the majority of Thais stood up against this bullying it would be better for all of us.
Sign me,
Kazumi
Copyright 2000 Pattaya Mail Publishing Co.Ltd.
370/7-8 Pattaya Second Road, Pattaya City, Chonburi 20260, Thailand
Tel.66-38 411 240-1, 413 240-1, Fax:66-38 427 596; e-mail: [email protected]
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