Bombs in Bangkok! Has anyone stopped to wonder what has gone wrong? Or is it just a question of "heads in the sand" once again? The crime wave is caused by two things: lack of money and prospects, and idle hands. Both can be fully attributed to the Kingdom's short-sighted and woeful policies towards its tourism industry, and the very tourists/expats who had previously made so much possible in this former fishing village.

Both tourists and businesses are relentlessly under threat by over-zealous, corrupt, greedy and short-sighted officials and laws, and the army personnel on the streets is now the result - and it will get worse until it finally implodes.

Various contributors to your letters column have for years been warning of the dangers of such cavalier and wanton treatment of businesses, tourists, expats and indeed the Thai populace (who have the most to lose, at the end of the day) but to no avail.

Natural disasters are one thing, and have to be coped with as best as possible; man-made disasters, one after another by anyone and everyone in power, are nothing short of a crime against humanity.

With reference to ex-prime minister Anand's statement that there is a thought that the Thai character is an impediment to development, and that foreigners criticise Thais as being lazy, boastful, double-dealing and jealous ... really, who is to say? But it is clear that of the many lessons not learnt, the financial crash of 1997 is one of them. Remember, you deserve the government that you choose, and recently, most decisions would be improved if they were reversed.

Dr James Fischer

Oxford, UK

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Will Thai politicians ever act like responsible adults?

Not for the first time, one reads with total exasperation the utterances of the spokesman for the TRT. Does their antipathy to the CNS and the government entirely cloud their judgement? Do they have nobody to advise them on the probable reaction to their comments, many of which are so utterly foolish and, not to put too fine a point on it, childish.

 The country is going through the worst possible series of crises, and the best that those opposed to the government can apparently do is to ask foolish questions or, as it seems in the case of Chavalit, taunt the government. Very adult! Very clever!

 Why don't all these people grow up, accept the political situation for what it now is (even if they don't like it) and start to make some concrete contributions to the problems? In other words, start behaving like adults or, where applicable, like statesmen.

Henry Ashe

Bangkok.

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English-teaching methods leave students in the dark

Idiom for the day: "crying shame", which can be used to describe something that's regrettable. Sample sentence: It's a crying shame that Thai students are taught English within a difficult curriculum.

Yesterday, a small group of university students approached me to get my opinion on six pages of study material assigned for one of their English classes. I took a brief look at the material and, other than a few sample sentences, I could not decipher it. Because I didn't want to denigrate another teacher's study material, I offered the most diplomatic assessment I could, saying; "It's difficult, but good luck". My private thoughts were that if I, as a teacher, were assigned to teach English using that material, I would refuse on the grounds it was ridiculously addled by constructionist semantics. It would be like offering someone a yoghurt drink, but not allowing them to take a sip until they recited the entire small print written on the packaging. That type of English lesson effectively destroys any beauty or flow the language might have, and renders it as a chopped up series of unnecessary memorised terminology that no English speaker would ever need or want to use.

Imagine if the Thai language were taught overseas by Americans who had only a tentative handle on speaking Thai. Add to that a teaching method that piled on many convoluted and confusing terms that Thai people never use - in order to explain a simple sentence.

Thai students struggle mightily for many years with English - yet most wind up not being able to speak or understand the language. With a combination of convoluted study material and non-native teachers, the task is made unnecessarily complicated and difficult. Strict visa regulations add another impediment - by effectively keeping many native English speakers from helping out. It's a crying shame to think of the thousands of classroom hours wasted by bright and eager students who want to learn English but are stymied by a dysfunctional teaching system.

Ken Albertsen

Chiang Rai

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Foreign-owned firms don't hurt Thais, so relax the law

Outraged by ex-PM Thaksin's sale of Shin Corp to foreigners, we're finally deciding to do something about the widespread usage of nominees to get around the restrictions of the Foreign Business Act. But we should be mature enough to control our emotions so that we don't act against our own long-term national interests.

Ex-finance minister Dr Thanong Bidaya estimated that there are 14,000 firms that are foreign-controlled, via nominees. Quick, can you tell me which ones they are, judging from their market actions? If you can't, what harm are they doing us by being owned by non-Thais?

What makes you think that only foreigners would do acts that harm our interests? Most of the crooks in jail are Thais; almost all of those being investigated for corruption are Thais. So does nationality make a difference in this respect?

Why have foreign limits at all? Why not have targeted measures against whatever we fear, for example mandating, up front, that THAI Airway's board will always be majority Thai, including the chairman; Egat will always give priority to Thai clients, even at a loss of 25 per cent of profit foregone vis-a-vis foreign customers; that the Minister of Information and Communications Technology will have the right to pre-empt any broadcasting for emergency messages, with compensation at market rates, etc.?

I've put forth the above ideas several times, in print, without any rebuttal - so, maybe our leaders are following the saying "When you have a weak platform, wrap yourself in the flag". You, dear reader, should have more vision, more maturity than to fall for such tricks.

Burin Kantabutra

Bangkok

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Equipment failure at the airport is unacceptable

I have travelled via the new airport on many occasions, either for business trip or vacation, and l encounter so many problems with the airport services.

The worst one was on December 30. The flight l took was AY0092 from Hong Kong. The plane could not stop at the gate because the bridge was not working properly. After the problem was fixed after more than 10 minutes, we were allowed to leave the plane.

Before going through to passport control, when I tried to find out which belt to collect my luggage from on the big notice board, I could not find my flight number. A staff member told me not to trust the big notice board, better to check it after passport control.

After I cleared passport control, I still could not find my flight on the screen display. And to my horror, all luggage was unloaded onto a belt without any sign at all.

I would like to know what is happening to the system and why flights are not displayed on the sign board.

Why are the airport staff not helpful at all?

How can an airport in operation for less than six months start having equipment failure?

Disgruntled traveller

Bangkok

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Comparatively, number of road deaths is not increasing

News reports on the number of road traffic deaths are much too hard on the various ministries involved in counting and preventing road accidents during the peak holiday periods.

In actual fact, things are holding steady and perhaps even improving.

While the actual numbers of fatalities are not in question, the inherent factual error is comparing them as equal figures rather than calculating them as rates. Comparing only the numerator (deaths) when the denominator (population) is rising is a dangerous game.

 According to the Thai government (Board of Investment) website, the Thai population is growing by 1.7 per cent or just over 1 million persons per year. The death rates for the current and past New Year's holiday period on the roads are then 6.68 and 6.69 deaths per million Thais.

In short, the increase of only eight deaths in the current period is offset by growth of the overall population.

What's more, UN statistics indicate that the population of young Thai males (those most at risk for holiday drunk-driving deaths) is growing faster than the overall population.

If the actual population figures of those truly at risk for holiday motorcycle accidents were used, the rates might actually be lower for this recent period.

One vital component of deriving a correct rate is that the numerator (deaths) must come out of the denominator (population). The 6.68-6.69 figures above do not take into account that the very young and the very old are at considerably lesser risk than 15- to 45-year-old males.

On the other hand, they are a reasonable indicator of trends. So things are actually holding rather steady.

These generic statistics can be used to predict that the next New Year's holiday period will result in 456 deaths.

There is one other flagrant miscount in this article. While the basic count is not in dispute, the simple fact that Bangkok has a listed population 10 times that of Prachuap Khiri Khan, when both tally 18 deaths, indicates that Prachuap is a much more dangerous place than Bangkok.

JJ Karwacki

Bangkok