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Thank you for saving our lives
To the Editor-in-chief:
We were one of the passengers of the boat ‘Metar
Namchok’ that capsized and sunk in Pattaya Bay on Tuesday, March 4, 2003
at approximately 4:30 p.m.
We are the Canadians on the boat. My name is Mr. Jan
Hendrik Goeree, 69 years old and my wife is Mrs. Teresita Ochoa-Goeree, 53
years old. Our daughter, Celeste Desiree Goeree, 18 years old, also a
Canadian and a niece, Jorabelle Caryl Barron, 26 years old (a Filipino) were
with us on that boat.
We are contacting you to help us convey our deepest and
sincerest appreciation to all the people involved in the rescue of the
passengers. Please thank all those involved in the rescue operation such as
the rescue crews, the police department, local vessels, Pattaya Memorial
Hospital and all others whose identities are not known to us. You saved our
lives. The Volunteer Coordinator in the Police Department did a very good
job in easing the psychological turmoil we were experiencing. The concern,
support and assistance rendered to us by the Canadian Embassy is quite
impressive and commendable. Last but not least, we would like to thank the
staff and management of the Queen Pattaya Hotel for their thoughtfulness and
compassion, thanks for the beautiful flowers.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Mr. Jan Hendrik Goeree
Mrs. Teresita Ochoa-Goeree
Miss Celeste Desiree Goeree
Miss Jorabelle Caryl Barron
Better coverage wanted for
sinking boat story
To [email protected]:
Coverage of this item buried on page 4 instead of page
one was not very public spirited on your part I felt. As a local paper of
your quality more active campaigns should be undertaken to see that safety
at least is kept up. No comment from city hall or the mayor? When will some
rules on safety be drawn up for the boats using the pier and when will they
be enforced? Hundreds use ferries to Koh Larn every day and many are at risk
looking at the boats or crews in use.
Will another sinking and loss of life be needed before
action is taken or is all this too close to the Bali Hi Pier being opened
and bad publicity not wanted? How does city hall answer the relatives of the
drowned man?
BBW
Is this Pattaya or Palermo?
Editor;
Some condo owners are beginning to wonder if they are
living in Pattaya or Palermo. Surely what developers are doing is not legal.
Owners are intimidated beyond belief. No condo committees are permitted.
There are no meetings of condo owners. (Managers make it very difficult to
call a meeting.) No financial statements are issued. Stooge managers hide
and are not available. Suggestion boxes are a thing of the past. And anybody
questioning authority is subject to physical abuse.
Condo owners must be able to meet and discuss problems
without fear of reprisal. Maybe city hall can come up with a solution.
Perhaps an agency can be established to make inquiries and with the help of
the police enforce condo laws, rules and regulations. But in the meantime
conditions will continue to deteriorate, the building gets a bad name for
itself, and property values will sink to a lower level.
I would advise any prospective condo buyer to look the
situation over carefully before making any commitment. Ask around.
Condon Owner
Other driving habits more important than helmets
Editor;
I am astonished at the comments I read about police and
road safety in Thailand and Pattaya.
Many people go on and on about dangerous driving,
particularly motorcycles. One of their main gripes is whether the rider is
wearing a crash helmet and whether the police sufficiently enforce this law.
Personally, I don’t care whether a motorcyclist wears a
crash helmet or not. It is their decision whether they wish to endanger his
their own safety, it will make no difference to me if I, or anyone else, are
involved in an accident with them.
I am much more concerned about reckless speed, lack of
awareness, turning left into major roads without looking right, no mirrors
or not using them, wrong side of the road driving, etc.
All of these things can injure me. Again, their lack of
helmet will make no difference to me.
Anyway, I also don’t understand why it is such a big
deal in Thailand. Unlike England, if one is injured in an accident all
hospital costs are paid for by the tax-payer (again). In Thailand, as we all
know, we have to sort out the bills ourselves.
It is totally silly that one can wear an egg-shell on
one’s head or have 4 people on a bike with only the driver wearing a
helmet or drive at 120kph along the second road without penalty, but be
handed a ticket if driving safely and competently with due care and
consideration but not wearing a crash helmet at the junction of 2nd and
Central roads.
I would appreciate anyone who cares about this particular
aspect to reply to this letter and explain their reasoning behind their
thinking.
Regards,
Steve
City could produce electricity with garbage burning plant
Editor,
One of last week’s letters suggests building plants to
desalt seawater. There are many such plants throughout the world but they
are expensive to run and the cost of the water would fall on city hall, who
would no doubt pass it on to the consumer!
One solution would be to build a garbage burning plant
which would produce electricity which would drive reverse osmosis desalting
units. When water demand was low electricity would be sold to the grid;
everyone benefits.
If city hall invested in such a plant then all the
community would benefit. I worked on such a plant and can be contacted for
further information!
Regards,
Ken Rochester
Why is the Siam Country Club
area so neglected?
Dear Editor,
Siam Country Club Road is still not repaired in the area
near the Muslim village and mosque. This road is now burdened with heavy
traffic but is in a constant state of disrepair. A couple of weeks ago, all
telephones from TT&T were out of order for days, leaving hundreds of
people without phone service. What if people are hurt, sick, or need help?
How do we call an ambulance? What happens if there is a fire or someone
needs to call the police?
To the company’s credit, service was restored quickly.
However, most people in the area have phone service with TOT. To make
matters worse, at the very same time, all TOT phones in the area went dead
in the middle of the night as well. Customers were told thieves stole a
section of cable to sell for the copper wiring.
As I write this letter both of my TT&T telephone
numbers are dead, (Monday March 3rd). Again.
This area is neglected in regard to infrastructure. Every
time it rains we are all left for hours without electricity. I have lived in
this area for nearly 8 years so I know the area’s history of maddening
service failures.
What most of us don’t know is the reason for them. Are
we in this area under some particular ‘cloud’ we should know about? Is
it lack of budget for the area, the fact that it is not a high-density
commercial area and therefore sent to the back of the line, or are we stuck
with district officials who either do not care, or have little authority or
budget to push for improvements?
The area around past the Mabprachan reservoir has
developed a lot of residential estates with large houses. Unfortunately many
of the houses are either empty, abandoned, or have had “for sale” signs
in front for literally years.
We do not get city water service, most use artesian
wells, and cable TV doesn’t come up this far. We also have no transport
system except the red baht buses that stop running after sunset. There is
almost no police patrol in this area at night. The lighting on the roadside
is so poor I am not surprised that drug dealers use this area to conduct
their nefarious business. They know where the cops are and where they never
go.
Residents can live without some of the less vital
conveniences. However, the authorities should provide the basic necessities
which include a reliable source of water, maintained roads, electricity, and
telephones.
The reason Pattaya is so overcrowded is that we can’t
stretch out and live in the surrounding areas due to spotty infrastructure.
Must we all live cheek-to-jowl in the seething caldron of Pattaya City in
order to have reliable services? Surely 8 kilometers (5 miles?) from Central
Pattaya (the famous international resort city of the world) is not the
hinterland.
C. S.
Chaos reins on the streets
Dear Pattaya Mail,
Your paper is generally very good and full of useful info
but the front page article on folks not wearing a helmet on motorbikes, etc.
was full of something else. If Thailand is Freeland why would anyone with
clean motives want to impose a helmet law on anyone?
If the police, etc. were truly concerned about safety
they would arrest the brain dead idiots who flagrantly race their vehicles
thru this city at all hours with no concern for anyone’s safety including
their own. Other obvious acts such as driving the opposite direction of
lawful traffic flow in any given lane, no lights after dark, following too
close for safety, failure to use turn signals, and double parking all fall
into the same category.
These actions are not a once and a while occurrence but a
constant and are an indicator of a dangerous mental state of high aggression
on the part of the conveyors thereof. Many are under the influence of drugs.
Oops, don’t tell anyone alcohol is a drug.
We all know the streets are so archaic in both structure
and conduct that chaos reins and there is no one simple solution, but arrest
for the aforementioned actions would establish much more creditability on
the part of officials relevant to their supposed concern for public safety
than one hundred million drug raids ever will.
Beyond all this is the fair and equal treatment
proposition that the driver of any vehicle is unsafe without a good helmet
(most I’ve seen here wouldn’t protect anyone) so the writer of your
article should also be campaigning for helmet laws for the drivers of cars,
trucks, taxis, etc.
The streets are so unsafe I question my own sanity every
time I have to walk or drive on one.
Another of the columnists in the same issue mentioned
7-11’s. One of the most endearing things about this country is the sweet
Sawadee, kah I hear almost every time I enter one. Other stores in this
country and around the world should take note.
A.Z.
Reply to
Mr. Chips
Sir,
Please re-read my letter; I stated that we both should
have places to go, smoking and non-smoking restaurants. It really should be
up to the owners of those establishments since it is their investment and
sometimes their dream. By tolerant I am trying to say, don’t make blanket
laws such as “All Restaurants”. That way you can dine happily and so can
I. I like to call it co-existing.
Eric Minerich
Witch Hunt
Dear Sir,
Angela Beardsley really needs to get her facts straight.
Matthew Kelly was never suspected of downloading or viewing child
pornography. He was never charged by the police in the UK for any offence,
but was questioned about allegations which had been made regarding indecent
assault supposed to have taken place thirty years previously. Subsequently,
the police declared that there was no evidence to substantiate the
allegations.
Yours faithfully,
Ben Franklin
England
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