Reading of orchid grower Suchart's sufferings at the hands of the Bangkok elite is instructive. It is a lesson in the traditional conception of governance in Thailand as practiced by the Bangkok elite: consume the land and the people.

Suchart said he wished the Bangkok governor and the head of the Irrigation Department would show more concern for people like him, who had sacrificed their entire fortune to protect the metropolis. At least, he said, they could help him by asking the SME Bank to accept his request for a debt moratorium.

Now that you've put him in the headlines, the political class will probably show up for photo ops with giant cheques to show how the paternalistic government loves the people. Hah!

How many other people are in the same position as Suchart Dokrak and what will be done for them? We already know what has been done to them.

Is the decision to destroy, to consume productive land and people to save the sinking metropolis even sound, if justice is not a concern?

What will happen in the future as the government continues to abuse the forests in Chiang Mai and elsewhere in the North, as the city of Bangkok continues to sink as the aquifer beneath it is pumped out, as the sea level rises due to global warming, as development insanely continues in the sprawling, clogged, fetid capital?

When will the political class come to consider Thailand is a country - north, south, east and west - of diverse cultures of more than 60 million citizens, rather than as the city of Bangkok, with ample hinterlands and subjects to be consumed?

John Francis Lee

Chiang Rai

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UN secretary-general does bidding of member states

Re: "Annan ignored UN rip-offs, starvation, nepotism, rape, prostitution and genocide", Letters, November 25.

Apropos Kofi Annan's tenure as secretary-general of the United Nations, it is reasonable to suppose there are roughly three schools of opinion. There are those who think he did a poor job; those who considered him somewhat mediocre; and there are those who recognise that to be secretary-general of a body representing 191 separate nations in times of quite exceptional turmoil, has been no sinecure. It takes a man of exceptional ability to gather their disparate strings together and many of us believe that, time after time, Kofi Annan showed himself to be just such a man.

Entirely without providing evidence, your correspondent brings forward those hoary old chestnuts in a somewhat vicious attack on the man who is soon to retire,

In actual fact, the United Nations Organisation is an extremely large and unwieldy body to control and there has not been one single shred of evidence put forward to support the suggestion that he bore any of the responsibility for the "Oil for Food" fiasco. This, like all the other United Nations programmes, was delegated to another. Nor can any aspect of the dreadful massacres which took place in Rwanda be truthfully laid at Annan's personal door.

As is common knowledge now, the decisions (or lack of them) regarding Rwanda, were the responsibility of the member states and it was Annan's job to put their decisions into effect. Indeed, the principal task of the secretary-general is to put into effect the decisions of the member nations.

As to the practice of visiting the sins of the sons upon the fathers (to paraphrase just a little), the less said about that - the better! Furthermore, it is by no means safe to assume that the incoming secretary-general will do a better job than the present incumbent, though obviously such a situation is always desirable. To achieve this means that he really will have his work cut out.

Along with most thinking people interested in world affairs, I have been thankful for Kofi Annan's applied wisdom and certainly wish his successor the very best of luck in this difficult post - hopefully without too many snide critics!

Henry Ashe

Bangkok

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Close the schools and future generations will suffer

Re: "Teachers shut all Pattani schools", News, November 26.

Why is it that when adults argue and have differences, the children suffer and the future is lost? I refer to the closing of schools in Pattani and, possibly to follow, in Yala and Narathiwat. Problems of cultural identity, use of indigenous language, normal desires for a political voice or just plain recognition as a distinct people have existed ever since the globe became populated. Each generation fights for survival and recognition and hopes for a better future. That is how it should be. However, when the present generation fights the noble fight, trying to elevate themselves, don't they realise that if they do accomplish their goals, they do so for the future generations.

Of what value is a place in the sun for future generations if they cannot survive in that future? Please, if you value your cause, leave the children and their teachers out of the killing equation and safeguard their education and their learning. Don't use a bitter present to create even more bitter futures. What are the examples of behaviour you are leaving? What are the examples you want the children live by - not die by - but live by? I am saddened.

Uncle

USA

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Daily reality of violence in the South is under-reported

The media outlets of Thailand are doing the Thai people a disservice by their inadequate reporting on the ongoing violence in the South. The murders and bombings occur on a daily basis. The Thai media appear to be repeating the Western media's mistake of believing that appeasement and silence over the Islamists' war on non-Muslim people will result in Muslim expressions of gratitude and cooperation. The reality is unequivocally the opposite.

In just the past week, from Friday to Friday, here is the actual record of atrocities committed by Islamist terrorists:

On Friday, November 24, in Narathiwat, four Islamic militants spray a teashop with automatic weapons, killing a patron and injuring four others. On the same day, in Pattani, a 42-year-old man is gunned down by Islamists on his way to work. The man survived with serious injuries.

On Thursday, 23, in Yala, Islamists murder a young man as he is sitting in his car. On the same day, in Pattani, a man is murdered near his home by Islamic gunmen and a 40-year-old Buddhist teacher is shot to death by Muslim militants; in Narathiwat, Islamists gun down a rubber tapper on his way to work.

On Wednesday, 22, in Narathiwat, a husband and wife are pulled from their pickup truck and brutally killed by radical Muslims. The woman's body is burned.

On Monday, 20, in Sungai Kolok, 16 Muslim terrorists detonate a bomb at a market, killing two people.

On Sunday, 19, in Pattani, Muslims gun down a middle-aged Buddhist taxi driver standing in line for food. The man survived with serious injuries. On the same day, in Yala, a 68-year-old Buddhist man is nearly decapitated by Muslim attackers; in Hat Yai, Islamists murder a civilian and dump his body in a ditch; in Narathiwat, Islamists drive up to three men having tea and pound them with automatic weapons for 30 seconds.

On Friday, 17, in Pattani, a Buddhist villager is murdered by Muslim terrorists while shopping at a market and a Buddhist security guard is murdered by Islamic extremists; in Yala, Islamists shoot a man off of his motorcyle and a Buddhist ice-cream seller is gunned down by Islamic terrorists; in Narathiwat, 27 people are injured when Islamists set off three bombs, and a flower seller is killed.

This is just one week in the life in the southern provinces of Thailand. The more conciliatory the Thai government becomes, the more the attacks escalate. This is the same pattern playing out elsewhere in the world today.

The Islamists respond to silence and appeasement as a provocation. Show compassion, and they attack. Show tolerance, and they attack. Give them money, and they attack. Seek negotiations, and they attack.

The media is abetting this situation by not reporting more thoroughly on the overt Islamist strategy of daily violence against innocent civilians. It is also a mistake to legitimise their activities by referring to them as "insurgents". They are not. They are killers and thugs.

Stephen Carter

Chiang Rai

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Business items ignore people who really improve society

Reading the Business section of your newspaper November 22 was like taking a big step backward to the time of robber barons and smokestack industries. Nearly the entire 530 column inches on your first four pages were devoted to banking, finance, luxury items, plus overpriced real estate and smoke-belching autos.

There are no mentions of inventions nor innovations, nor ways consumers can save money. The only mentions of anything environmental were two small articles: one mentioning market share of 'eco-cars' (vehicles which guzzle a slightly smaller amount of fossil fuels than ordinary vehicles) and a brief mention of a solar-cell manufacturer's merger plans.

The people featured in the Business section are those types that shuttle money between banks, businesses and their personal accounts. They don't contribute any tangible improvements to society - and it's doubtful they're doing anything for the impoverished or the environment.

How about mentions of new inventions - especially such things that contribute to the betterment of people and the environment? How about consumer reports-type comparisons of products and services in the marketplace? Instead, we get free advertisements for large corporations - under the guise of press releases - nearly all of which feature non-essential luxury items geared for upper-crust consumers.

Can the little guy get free adverts with photos for their items if submitted as press releases also? Duh ... the answer to that is a flat no.

Ken Albertsen

Chiang Rai