HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Jomtien Beach and jet skis

Energy conservation ideas

Pattaya’s visitors do not cause the majority of problems

Much complained about,few willing to risk official complaint

GM crops get green light? The som tam nightmare begins

Pattaya traffic police only interested in stopping helmet-less motorcycle drivers

Jomtien Beach and jet skis

Editor;
I was bathing as normal in the sea at Jomtien today and the jet skis were coming in very close indeed. I understand that the normal roping has been taken away presumably for repair.

Two jet skis with their passengers zigzagged in and headed straight for me. I stood up in order that they would be aware. I was about waist high in the water. They were obviously having their idea of fun and headed for me and then away just in time. I made no gesture at all. It was extremely unnerving. I am no longer young and felt very scared by it all. Several people came and sympathised including some from several deck chair lots along the beach, so it was obviously noticeable!

I am not sure what the tourist police are there for. The behaviour of these skiers was obvious a lot of the day. It may not be their job to patrol this sort of thing, but whose responsibility is this and can it be controlled before anyone gets dangerously hurt? The sewerage is bad enough (although temporary) but mangled bodies would not help in the city’s reputation either!
Yours sincerely,
Paul Hawgood
View Talay Condo

Energy conservation ideas

Dear Editor:
Recent proposals for necessary and immediate energy consumption reductions appear to be poorly thought out. In many ways they miss the mark and could even be counterproductive. Think back on the number of times you’ve: Entered a department store, convenience store or theater and were immediately chilled by the refrigerated environment? Visited a sales display and been dazzled by the illumination? Walked by entrance doors to a department store and felt the chill of their A/C ten meters outside the doorway?

Immediate savings in energy consumption by retail stores nationwide could be realized by simply calculating realistic energy use standards proportionate to floor space. Costs in kilowatt hours per square meter for realistic temperature and illumination levels in modern building construction are already well known. Business space assumedly is a matter of public record. So, after a nationwide law is expedited by the Thai government the only remaining chore to implement this idea would be official notification to all businesses and commercial building managers quantifying their limit and specifying the penalty. All that remains then is monitoring and enforcing the law.

Solutions to meet the quota would then be the choice of each business itself. Choices can include combinations of shorter business hours, less lighting, less A/C, improved building insulation, improved heat transfer by keeping outside doors closed or by installing entrance door heat loss locks.

Penalties to encourage businesses not to exceed this limit could be a healthy surcharge, maybe as much as 200% of the quota excess. Penalty funds should be directed to mitigation of other energy wasting situations, for example traffic oriented energy waste — but that’s another letter and more ideas.
Robert Peterson
Nongprue, Chonburi

Pattaya’s visitors do not cause the majority of problems

Dear Editor,
On the front page of the Pattaya Mail’s Friday, August 6, 2004 issue (Volume XII, No. 32), Khun Suchada Tupchai, while obviously with heart in the right place, made some remarks that I believe require correction.

Khun Suchada referred to “…inconsiderate visitors see the resort town as a place where they are free to do as they please and are often imprudent.” Khun Suchada goes on to state, “Some visitors come for a holiday drunk, look for sexual entertainment, and get into trouble.” Khun Suchada also refers to these activities in the next paragraph as “immoral acts [which influence] local kids and even the grown-ups.”

Firstly, it is the parent’s responsibility, not the community’s, to monitor and correct their children’s behavior. It is the responsibility of the “grown-ups” to set the example for those children to follow. Being drunk is indeed a problem on a personal and social level. Getting “into trouble” is also a problem, though I’m not convinced it is the “visitors” causing the majority of it - usually they are targets/victims if local media is to be believed.

Looking for sexual entertainment can be a problem if a person is seeking the darker aspects of it, but when it is a choice of consenting adults, no matter what the venue or process, and neither party is being held in servitude to a person or business against their will, to call it “immoral” is a bit prude and closed-minded.

As a minor side-note I would like to remind Khun Suchada the Lord Buddha did not teach that sex was immoral. Actually, Buddha did not teach anything about moral or immoral determination. Lord Buddha taught: Live right, think right, act right, etc. as the path to enlightenment, which is determined by the individual. If a person did not live right, think right, act right, etc. then that person might move backward in the levels of rebirth rather than forward toward enlightenment. It is the influence of western/Christian social values that has colored consenting adult’s intimate activities as “immoral”.

Furthermore, if the “visitors” to Pattaya, and their activities are so “immoral”, why then are so many news reports (in Thai and English) filled with information about upcountry girls/women held in captivity, and forced to service customers sexually, by Thai people until they are finally able to escape and report it to the police? Why are there so many raids on Thai frequented Karaoke bars where underage staff is found in similar circumstances? Why are there motorbike gangs/youths doing drive-by shootings, petty thefts, and selling and using drugs?

Maybe if the Thai police would focus more on what’s happening on the less traveled sois of Pattaya, and less on what’s happening in the legally operating businesses of the more touristy areas, Pattaya would become a safer more “visitor” friendly destination.

I apologize if my letter sounds a bit argumentative. I neither condone nor condemn the legal activities of adults in Pattaya (or anywhere else), rather I believe the pursuit of pleasure is an individual choice so long as it does no harm to others. As a legal, taxpaying resident of Pattaya I agree there are problems present on all sides that need to be resolved. As a legal semi-permanent “visitor” to the Kingdom of Thailand, I am offended at the suggestion that a majority of problems are caused by Pattaya’s “visitors”.

Sincerely,
C. Williams

Much complained about,few willing to risk official complaint

Dear Editor;
Congratulations on publishing Spider Man’s letter (6 April) about corruption in Pattaya Immigration. The blatant soliciting of a “tip’’ of 500B from retirees renewing their visas is much complained about, but few are willing to risk their renewal by an official complaint. A notable (& brave) exception was one man who, during the interview with the officer, pointedly referred to the problem of tackling corruption in his condo building - no tip was solicited.

I wonder if Thai officials ever have their attention drawn to letters like this, or if any action could be taken to curb this corruption. Perhaps one of your reporters could do some investigative journalism?
Retiree

GM crops get green light? The som tam nightmare begins

Mailbag;
Last night I had a dream. I dreamt that I was walking down a crowded soi near my office, arriving at my favorite som tam stall, drawn by the sound ‘tum-tum-tum-tum…’ As I sat down on a rickety wooden bench, I called out my order and glanced around. And my heart stopped. There were no people around me. Limbs covered in brown fur, huge wet eyes, long teeth chewing through strips of green papaya, fine black whiskers dripping sweat. There were no people around me. I was alone among guinea pigs. When I opened my mouth to scream, I heard the squeal of a rat. Then I saw my whiskers dripping sweat, the fur on my arms, claws scratching at my own face. As I turned to run my body was thrown against a wall of wire; the wall of a cage...

Then I woke up. My heart beating rapidly, feeling my face, rubbing my bare arms for comfort, I stumbled outside to catch my breath. And there I saw it, a narrow column in the newspaper lying at my feet: ‘GM Papaya Declared Safe’. Safe because some scientists said it’s safe. Because the guinea pigs that ate it hadn’t died. Hadn’t died yet, because we became them. And now the nightmare begins…

Deejay Songtian
Pattaya

Pattaya traffic police only interested in stopping helmet-less motorcycle drivers

Editor;
Living in Pattaya for some time, I still get upset every time I drive on Pattaya roads. I am an experienced driver but am scared to drive in Pattaya because you need at least 6 eyes and even that is not enough to avoid accidents. To me it is still a secret that there are not 50 traffic deaths a day in Pattaya.

In the past 10 years I have been all over Thailand several times, both with car and motorbike, but have never seen anywhere in this country with the same bad driving habits as in Pattaya.

It seems to be that in Pattaya everything is possible in traffic. You can drive against the flow of traffic, with no lights switched on or even mounted at night, ignore traffic lights, speed at busy places, nothing matters as long as you wear a helmet, because that’s the only thing police in Pattaya care about. For example if you look at the cross section from Third Road with Soi 17 you will see many times police officers hiding behind the 7-11 shop to catch motorbike drivers without a helmet. If you are familiar with this place you will know that almost no motorbike stops for the traffic lights over there. Even with the officers at the scene this doesn’t change because they have been told to fine those without helmets. And this is no isolated case, just take a look around the city where officers are posted, and stop for a few minutes to see what happens. You will see the most crazy situations you can ever think about.

Don’t tell me this is Thai nature because when you go to Bangkok or any other place in Thailand you will not see these things. And why is this? Because if you break traffic rules in Bangkok, police will stop you for sure. I can understand that Thai traffic law says that every motorcyclist has to wear a helmet (what about the passenger here in Pattaya?) but shouldn’t police do a better job stopping those who endanger other people’s lives instead of those who want to harm themselves?

I even would like to suggest that if police take post at any traffic light or intersection in Pattaya and fine only those who bring other people’s lives in danger with their driving habits, they will make a multiple amount of money from what they earn now. And maybe Pattaya roads will be safer places over time.
Sincerely,
Eric Baerts

Letters published in the Mailbag of Pattaya Mail
are also on our website.