HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Humbled by Dr Iain

Policing Walking Street but not Third Road

Road hazards everywhere

Thank you city hall

Scrooge is alive and well and living in Pattaya

Soi Buakhao danger

Beggar

Humbled by Dr Iain

Editor;
This has been bothering me since I sent an e-mail to Dr Iain Corness who writes the most excellent column ‘Modern Medicine’ in this fine newspaper.

It’s been a pain. I feel terrible. I am a happy-go-lucky sort of guy. So, maybe, I’ am not the smartest guy around town. I have the unique ability to say and do really stupid things. It’s not easy being me. I hate it. It’s so embarrassing.

I need to apologize to Dr Iain because my e-mail was stupid. I was just joking ... sort of. What happened was that my girlfriend and I were at the beach with a bunch of her girlfriends. They all were squatting on the ledge along the sidewalk and my girlfriend asked me to squat down. I explained to her and her girlfriends that my ankles do not bend like hers. She asked me to try. So, being the happy-go-lucky clown that I can be sometimes, I slowly descended and attempted to squat like her. I promptly rolled over on my butt. My girlfriend and all the other girls laughed out loud. After a minute of uncontrolled laughter and talking, she asked me to “Do it again.” So, being the happy-go-lucky clown that I can be, I did it again and got another great big laugh. It was great fun entertaining the girls. I like to laugh.

I began to think ... at least that’s what I thought I was doing, and I sent an e-mail to Dr Iain and told him the story about my ankles and I asked him to write an article about why my ankles do not bend like my Thai girlfriend’s ankles. I didn’t think he would take me seriously. I was just joking ... sort of.

Well, in issue no. 40, which was over a month ago, he wrote the most polite and educated article. I was so impressed. I was humbled. This brilliant man informed the readers about not only the musculo-skeletal differences between Asians and Caucasians but also that most Asians are not affected by repetitive work involving the hand and wrist because Asian tendons are more pliable and supple than those from the West. Also, Asians are more agile. Asians can hyper-extend the fingers while the thumb and index finger are touching each other. Also, he pointed out that there are differences in our blood groups, hair, metabolic differences, enzymes, response to medications and brain structure.

This ‘brain structure’ thing, I think, is that if you look at the brain of Asians and Westerners, it is built differently. Logic, temperament, moods, intelligence, etc., are not about “structure.”

So, Dr Iain, I apologize for my joke of an e-mail question. But I want you to know that I am humbled and in awe with your response to my stupid question. Please forgive me. Your humble student and fan.
John Langan

Policing Walking Street but not Third Road

Editor,
With reference to the earlier closing of bars due to the MOI and it wishing for Thai people to live better lives, it is with great disbelief that I see the police in Pattaya heavily monitoring the likes of Walking Street and other close by attractions, but do Thai people really frequent Walking Street?

The answer is no, unless they are working there trying to earn a living in these lean times around Pattaya. With a dreadful low season and hopefully a better high season than last year, the authorities really do need to wake up to themselves; there is visibly no real policing in the Third Road area where there are not only many karaoke bars but fun pubs, mainly if not all frequented by Thai people. These venues by the way are heavily reported on the news and in the papers for gangland style shootings and mass brawls where machetes and iron bars are not uncommon. These situations could and should be avoided by policing, but my real fear is your average policeman on around 6000 baht a month is either too scared or not silly enough to do so!

Question yourself: would you?

The point I am getting at is due to the MOI and their bizarre ideas the only people due to suffer are owners of businesses in the entertainment industry, for now. Later the domino effect will happen to many other types of businesses that get the business from people coming to Pattaya for fun, relaxation and not to get told when to go to sleep and not have another beer!
Regards,
Michael Griller

Road hazards everywhere

Sir;
With reference to the editorial re lack of signage of potential road hazards, I fully support this subject.

I would refer the city council to the lack of some drain covers in Sois 13, 14 and 15 on Jomtien Beach. These uncovered drains are a potential death trap for motorcyclists who are unaware of the problem. It is further compounded in some cases by long overhanging grass, hiding the holes.

Please could the city council rectify this long overdue matter?

J B Graham
Jomtien Beach

Thank you city hall

Dear Editor,
The folks at city hall get a double thanks. As I was departing my car the other day in front of the original Mike’s Department Store on 2nd Road I dropped my keys down a drain. To say the least I was flabbergasted, plus a small crowd had started to gather. After several futile attempts to retrieve the keys, I was about to give up when a yellow truck from city hall appeared and within 5 minutes the man had retrieved my keys and once again I was one happy “farang”.

There is always (it seems) a little dirt thrown here and there towards the city officials or toward city hall but in this instance the dirt was on my car keys.
Thank you,
Alice Ray

Scrooge is alive and well and living in Pattaya

Editor;
I was very saddened (and not a little ashamed) to read the letter (Pattaya Mail 29 Oct.) from Kel Gallagher re the price of a baht bus to take them directly home from Carrefour after having spent 5,000 baht on shopping.

Maybe Kel Gallagher is living on a shoe-string and every baht must be zealously counted - but why, therefore, shop at Carrefour, surely local markets would be much cheaper? The only other explanation is that we have an example here of the ex-pat Scrooge syndrome, ESS (pronounced HISS!)

For someone who must be extremely wealthy compared with a baht bus driver, to become ‘rather incensed’ over 40 baht is incomprehensible. Even the original price asked for the bus (150 baht) is only the price of a cup of coffee in London (half a cup in some European capitals!); fair enough, they bargained and the price was reduced to 100 baht. Not satisfied with this, however, (and with BP rising by the second presumably), the aid of a policeman is enlisted and, yes, a further 40 baht is saved! Hurrah!

Do such farangs ever stop to think of the baht bus driver as a person, working all hours that god gives, to feed, clothe and house his family, probably taking home a mere pittance compared to Kel Gallagher’s monthly income? While none of us like to be ‘taken for a ride’ - especially for 150 baht! - we should remember that trying to understand other people’s lives, showing kindness, generosity and humanity to those less fortunate than ourselves benefits everybody in the end.
Trevor Hopkins

Soi Buakhao danger

Dear Editor;
I would like to inform the Pattaya town hall of a building site on Soi Buakhao down from the Pattaya Klang side that is not very safe. This new building is very close to the road and very high with no fencing around it or a safety net to catch anything that might fall. I hate walking or driving passed this building site as I know it’s only a matter of time before someone gets hurt or killed. Please can you do something about it before it’s too late?

I would also like to know why anyone expects any drivers to know what speed they are to go in Pattaya. I don’t understand why there are not speed limit signs along the roads of Pattaya informing drivers. I know that most people will not stop driving more that the limit but at least they have no complaints if they are caught. I would also like to see over-paths being built on 2nd Road for the people to cross the road in safety.
Alan

Beggar

The beggar is a lowly man
As class distinction goes
But what his true condition is
His neighbor seldom knows

He may be nothing more than just
A plain and simple fraud
Or he may have the honesty
That people all applaud

Perhaps he really needs the cash
That fills his tattered hat
Or it may be his scheming way
Of getting rich and fat

The truth is not apparent to
The ordinary glance
And yet I do not have the heart
To take the smallest chance

Because when I have passed him up
And seen his gray head nod
It makes me wonder whether I
Have walked away from God.
B. Philip Webb

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