HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Another TV rant

UK occult powers

Becoming the whinging POMS they once mocked

Beach markets

Perfect because of its imperfections

Cross Bay Swim support

Another TV rant

Editor;

I enjoyed Hyde Parke’s True Vision rant last week, but was sorry that he didn’t take a swipe at my own particular bete noire, Star World.

After True Vision’s unexplained dropping of BBC Entertainment last year, we were left with Star World for light entertainment. Not too bad at first; we had Seinfeld, Friends, Two and a Half Men, all long in the tooth of course, but intelligent and amusing enough for second and even third viewing. Then we had Letterman at 10 p.m., later relegated to 8 a.m. and subsequently dropped.

What do we have now? Endless Next Top Models from... everywhere! Repeat after turgid repeat of American Idol and other ‘talent’ shows.

I understand that True Vision are not responsible for Star World content but does anyone ever sit and look at the mindless pap that they are foisting on us? If there is an audience surely they should be in bed long before the ‘watershed’.

I keep coughing up, mainly for the sport channels, but there are bars to cater for any sporting interest so maybe I should cancel my subscription and get out more.

Reg
Najomtien

UK occult powers

Editor;

I assume that when your evidently short-sighted correspondent who chooses only to sign himself as “UK Pensioner” refers to a letter from “Ron” Maynard he is actually making a point about my own which you kindly published on 3 September.

“UK Pensioner” dismisses me as a purveyor of “nonsense... illogical, contradictory, unfeeling rubbish... [and] Goebbels-like propaganda”. He further suggests that, while I lack even a “mosquito brain”, I do possess “occult powers”.

Let me once again make three simple points.

Firstly, those making pension contributions while in work are not actually paying into and building up some mythical personal “pot” that they themselves will be able to call upon in their retirement. What they are really doing is paying for the pensioners of their own time - and they will subsequently, during their own retirement, be relying on the contributions being paid by those still in work. That is why, as the proportion of those in work to those of pensionable age steadily decreases, we face a looming pension crisis.

Secondly, UK pensions are specifically raised from time to time so as to help pensioners in the UK face increases in costs that are specific to them. Thus, pension increases are based on UK data, primarily the national rate of inflation. Expats in Thailand or elsewhere are not having to face increases in the cost of the UK TV licence, rising UK gas prices or whatever, and so should not have money that has been specifically factored in to pay for those things doled out to them.

Thirdly and on a more practical level, “UK Pensioner” is living in cloud cuckoo land if he thinks that we who continue to live in the UK and are facing unprecedented cuts in all aspects of our daily lives will feel much - or any - sympathy with his plight when we have our own to consider.

May I therefore suggest that “UK Pensioner” might benefit from acquiring a few “occult powers” of his own.

Rob Maynard

Becoming the whinging POMS they once mocked

Editor,

Don’t we have to wonder at the mentality of some expats? Always there are those who decided to leave their homeland for one reason or another. In their autumn or winter years, they then have nothing better to do than cherry-pick this or that aspect of life from here or there and use their ripe weapon to beat-up on their newly adopted home. Even some Aussies here do it, having become the whinging POMS they once mocked.

I have just returned from my annual U.K. visit and usual 3 months summer in Cyprus. While I am away I generally forget about Pattaya and concentrate on where I am. In some ways it makes no difference as ‘expat syndrome’ is everywhere. What is expat syndrome you might ask? Log onto one of the many Cyprus blog sites or Cypriot English language newspapers and you will soon see that although the place is very different to Thailand in local culture, the expat culture is more or less identical. ‘Peeves’ and ‘rants’ are about scallywag locals taking advantage, TV, dual pricing, parking, rubbish, noise, crime and lack of law enforcement, etc., etc. All these things are also complained of back home.

Those who keep on about why people will not come here should note that Cyprus has far more things that could be improved than Thailand does, yet the Brit expat population is near the half-million mark - ten times that in Thailand. It also has a booming Russian tourist trade and growing expat population. One sometimes gets the idea that native English speakers believe we are the only tourists that exist.

Perhaps expat syndrome sufferers should adopt interest in personal progress, proceeding on the basis that it is extremely rude and pretentious to tell other people how to do their jobs in their own land. A question I ask is why, when time remaining is valuable and change is unlikely before the expiry date arrives, moanalots do not seek somewhere they will be happier. Is the answer that no such place exists?
J. Tighe

Beach markets

Editor;

I have to say I agree with Malone. These Beach Rd. markets that utterly block the beach and sea view are nothing but irritating. Just when one thinks Beach Rd. could not become any more crowded than it already is, they cram something else into the few spare millimeters of land left.

Everything in Pattaya is crowded, why jam more stuff into any already over-crowded space? If the sidewalks, and Beach Road itself were both 3 times as wide, then it might start to make sense, but they are what they are...tiny. Open space is something (western tourists at least) appreciate far more than one giant open market.
Pattayaboat Ken

Perfect because of its imperfections

Editor;

In a previous issue there was a mock-up photo of the proposed sky train. Contained within the letters section was a letter entitled “Clean the Streets”, which called for the equivalent of a complete make over for the city.

Am I the only one who understands what the charm of Pattaya is? Or at least use to be.

When I first came to Pattaya fifteen years ago I immediately liked it, but was not certain why. It took a few years before I began to understand why. It was a typical Thai town set on the water. No buildings over four stories, wires all over the buildings, broken sidewalks and nothing painted. In other words, it was the antithesis of every small, medium and large city in the Western world. No strip malls with xerox corporate logos, no monster malls with spotless decor, and best of all, a minimum of cement. In short, it was different from my plush, spotless, pristine asylum back in Los Angeles. In other words, it was real and created by the people who lived here.

Now you see monster malls which you can find in any other city in most of the world, rather than the makeshift tented shopping areas we used to shop in. People are proposing subway or skyway systems where we can be herded about in speed and comfort as opposed to the fun and aggravation of catching a baht bus and being able to watch what is going on in the streets while we are travelling.

Pierre, the author of “Clean the Streets”, wants to get rid of the cute little girls standing outside of bars and scrub the spot they were standing on. He wants the wires gone, the broken sidewalks gone and any other trace of what the city represented. He wants Paris, New York, London and Bangkok in place of what this city was and to some degree still is.

I could suggest that Pierre and all of his cohorts who are still suffering from their centuries old colonist spirit go home, but they wouldn’t anyway, so what’s the point?

I use to travel frequently to Honolulu, Hawaii on business years ago. I was also there back in 1951, when there was only a half a dozen large hotels and nothing over six stories and I couldn’t believe how it had changed over thirty years. On one of my trips I distinctly remember standing at sunset on the huge cement gathering area of the hotel and watching the evening ritual from the old days where the Hawaiians re-enact a service honoring the setting of the sun. I couldn’t help but watch the tourists watching the service rather than watching the service. They were all quite touched by the Hawaiian kid, in traditional Hawaiian garb, standing on a second floor, cement balcony and blowing a horn made from a large sea shell. I would guess that one was supposed to try and imagine that the balcony was the side of a volcano, but I didn’t seem to be able to conjure up that image. I also couldn’t help but consider that King Kamehameha must have been turning over in his grave if he was watching this spectacle. But the suckers were buying it and after Pattaya no longer looks like a Thai city, they will probably buy that also. Where they use to watch Thais dancing traditional Thai dances at a Thai style restaurant on Second Road, they will be watching them in the alcove of the latest mall; “Cement City”.

I would imagine that my projected scenario will play itself out no matter what I say because foreigners visiting the city don’t know what they have discovered, and city officials and business leaders are basically greedy, so things always change. But it sure would be nice if all of the people who come here, don’t understand why they like it, and then set about trying to perfect it, would at least consider what I am saying and cease their calling for change to what is already basically perfect. You see, what was perfect about it was its imperfections.

John Arnone
Yasothon

Cross Bay Swim support

IDear Friends at Pattaya Mail Media;

We at the Rotary Club of Jomtien-Pattaya wish to extend our sincere thanks once again to the management and staff at Pattaya Mail Media for your generous support for our upcoming 7th Cross Bay Swim event to be held on November 7th. It is very gratifying to know that we can always count on your support and assistance to make this event a successful fund raiser for our “Children’s Fund” which provides clean drinking water for rural schools and other humanitarian help to enable our children in Thailand to achieve their dreams.

Best Regards,
Brendan

Letters published in the Mailbag of Pattaya Mail
are also published here.