Truth or Consequences

Editor;

Prolonged tropical monsoons, freak storms, torrential rains and massive floods have devastated a vast wasteland of Southeast Asia, resulting in a tragic loss of lives and livelihoods, killing 745 people - a quarter of them children - in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Up to a million ill-fated victims remain under threat of traumatic emotional stress, in urgent need of emergency aid relief and compassionate humanitarian support assistance.

At least 370 flood-related deaths have been reported in Thailand, mostly from drowning, and about one-third of the rural countryside remains heavily submerged, cutting off roads; destroying homes, businesses, crops, livestock; endangering the vital infrastructure; and leaving entire isolated villages underwater. The contaminated overflow has caused untold damage to treasured ancient heritage site ruins, inundating industrial zone factories built in low-lying areas, negatively impacting upon vital tourism revenue and cutting Thailand’s GNP (Gross National Product) projections by as much as 2%.

Generous cash donations and corporate bank-deposited contributions from Thais-helping-Thais have been supplemented by 40,000 military troops, provincial hospices and educational institutions serving as relocation centers, thousands of kind-hearted volunteers and enabling neighborhood support groups. Unified emergency response efforts have joined forces with U.N. bodies, the Red Cross, Royal foundations and NGOs to buy and deliver flat bottom boats, drinking water, essential foodstuff and floating latrines, but these stopgap measures still foresee glaring difficult-to-solve problems lying ahead.

Given climate change, sinking land mass, deforestation, unregulated urban sprawl and decades of short-sighted negligent human indifference, the logical conclusion is that we cannot escape the wrath of nature avenging longstanding abusive treatment. Modern excessive lifestyles and the obsession with progress at any cost must learn to accommodate, adjust and adapt to rapidly-changing times in our ever-shrinking interconnected and mutually dependent hi-tech IT www. The future forecast analysis raises fears that the current surging floodgates deluge most probably represents a prelude to even more severe unnatural catastrophes and that the worst is yet to come.

We must, therefore, face harsh true facts with resolute common sense determination by developing contingency workable Action Plans featuring a regional framework utilizing innovative state-of-the-art approaches and streamlined procedures to deal with water management and water conservation. All members of our global family must join together in a unified willingness to resolve Have versus Have Not inequities with pragmatic optimism and resilient can do, will do positive energy attitudes to make our endangered planet a safer and saner place to pass on to our beloved offspring.

Dr. Charles Frederickson,
Bangkok

Escaping Bangkok floods to other dangers

Editor;

(People are) escaping Bangkok floods only to find some of the beaches too dangerous to let young children play on.

This lovely mother Noo with her 8 month old beautiful daughter were staying in Jomtien to escape flooding waters in Bangkok where they live.

She saw the Pollution Solution Group removing dangers from the beach and told us how sad it is to see all of the littered toxic cigarette butts and bottle caps everywhere and could never allow her priceless baby to sit or play on the beach for fear that she could ingest one of these things the moment she took her eyes off of her, as many are buried in the sand out of sight.

Being a young mother, lovely Noo realizes that babies up to 2 years old will put whatever will fit into their little mouths. Cigarette butts are full of toxins and will not only choke and make ill, but also can kill a baby. Bottle caps also will choke a baby to death, not to mention what these 2 things do to our wildlife and waterways.

Noo asked us why! In Bangkok if you flick a toxic cigarette butt, you are fined 2,000 baht and here where it is even more dangerous, being close to the ocean, children and our sea food, the authorities just look on.

Many, not all, Thai and farangs need to understand that they are taking a chance on making ill, killing and contaminating, the voiceless by littering these things anywhere.
Thank You,

The Pollution Solution Group
Gerry Rasmus aka KOTO

Save the children

Dear Editor:

Although I routinely receive emails and letters from Amnesty International I am sometimes so shocked by what I read that I feel compelled to contact the media.
In a recent letter Amnesty writes: “Speak Out Against Child Rape. In Nicaragua girls between 13 and l5 are common victims and in the majority of cases their rapists are their fathers, grandfathers, uncles or cousins.”

“Ukuthwala is a traditional practice of forced marriage in South Africa. Girls as young as 12 are paid for and then raped.”

“In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, young girls abducted by armed groups are used as sex slaves and forced domestic help.”

And “Speak out against Child Soldiers” The Taliban in Kabul recently used an 8-year old girl as a suicide bomber.

“In Somalia, boys 10 to l5 are abducted from streets and classrooms by the Islamic group al-Shabab to fight. Refusing ‘recruitment’ means risking death.”

But Amnesty says we can make a difference. “When a young women was gang-raped by seven men in Saudi Arabia, she was sentenced to six months in prison and 200 lashes for being alone in private with a member of the opposite sex who was not an immediate family member. Yet our concern for the young women was heard and the girl’s imprisonment and flogging sentence was dropped.”

Readers can contact Amnesty International, 5 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10001, USA and ask to sign their petition to Hillary Clinton and U.S Ambassador Susan Rice urging them to support the effort to end these atrocities against children.
Eric Bahrt

Floods and tourism

Editor;

The devastating floods that have engulfed a third of the provinces in Thailand has wrecked the rice harvest and devastated the huge industrial estates of Bangkok causing an already tsunami damaged Toyota to cut back on their world production. It has also caused problems for thousands of small businesses throughout the affected areas.

The tourist areas of Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Koh Chang, Koh Samui and Phuket have been virtually unaffected. Why then is it that hoteliers in these areas are reporting figures way down on expectancy and massive cancellations?

The answer is simple; out of all the major airports in Thailand only Don Muang was reported closed, with extensive international television coverage showing Don Muang flooded with water covering the wheels of planes. This coverage that was syndicated throughout the world did not qualify that Don Muang was a secondary airport handling only domestic flights and that the majority of these flights were operating normally out of Suvarnabhumi.

CNN omitted to mention that Don Muang was secondary. The BBC world coverage did mention that Don Muang was secondary but then followed up with an embassy representative suggesting nobody visit Bangkok until further notice, again with no mention that all international and connecting flights were operating normally to all destinations on the tourist list in Thailand.

The tourist industry has suffered disasters every year for 5 years through SARS, bird flu, yellow shirts and the airport closures, red shirt riots and death and now floods. Last year a government representative haughtily described the tourism section of the economy as a fraction of GDP and that rice exports and manufacturing were what counted. Whatever the position is the point was missed that tourism is a huge major player in employment. Now that the rice fields are gone and manufacturing is under water, one would think that tourism would get the proper attention it requires. However, I have not witnessed one government representative on TV giving any information about anything. It would appear that all the major networks are uninformed about the normality of holidaying in Thailand regardless of the floods.

A few months ago it was announced that a huge amount of money, multi billions of baht, would be spent on tourism advertising to get past the political unrest. Where is it? All I have witnessed is a poorly produced ad regurgitating the turgid “Amazing Thailand” campaign. Meanwhile, Malaysia has done “Malaysia truly Asia” and Indonesia has produced the superb “Remarkable Indonesia” ad. There are also effective contributions from Korea and India.

People watch and respond to these ads and if they get the slightest hint of a problem in a country that is unexplained they will simply ring their agents and change plans in the blink of an eye. Thailand was top of the heap a few years ago and everything looked promising for this beautiful country’s tourism business. Sadly we are no longer on top and hopefully this flood will be a wakeup call for the government and TAT to get real and get active before it is too late.
Richy

Truth or Consequences

Escaping Bangkok floods to other dangers

Save the children

Floods and tourism