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What does Thaksin's exile mean for City? No one quite knows, except that he faces the "threat" of extradition but will not actually be extradited and is unable to free up his frozen assets. So doubts abound in England over whether transfers can be made and wages can be paid and just how rigorously the Premier League will enact its "fit and proper person" test.

And just when City seemed to have achieved some stability with ninth place after a passable year under Sven-Goran Eriksson last season, it was all to change again.

But at least in Thaksin it appears they have a man who can deliver their first silverware since 1976: you've got it, the "Cock-up Cup".

Arun Singh

Bangkok

 

Government programme |to benefit rural students

Re: "The sorry state of primary education", Editorial, August 16.

I wholeheartedly agree that crucial issues that must be addressed include training of innovative IT teachers and computer-based self-access to materials to enhance students' abilities to think critically and creatively.

Under the visionary guidance of Somkiat Chobphol, deputy secretary-general of the Office of the Basic Education Commission, an already field-tested comprehensive curriculum-reform package, soon to be implemented, will enhance individual learning options and opportunities.

It will do this by first focusing on remote rural schools, which receive the least support but urgently require the most attention. Education is the most effective way to empower the disadvantaged rural poor to free themselves from neglect, poverty and want and to ensure that quality early-childhood care and firm foundation building blocks are offered to all our kids.

Dr Chanchai Prasertson

Bangkok

 

Oil-subsidy advocates only looking at short-term gains

I agree with former energy minister Piyasvasti Amranand in being against the present oil-price subsidies and in urging the government to spend taxes collected on developing public utilities or infrastructure rather than on enabling lower fuel prices.

Piyasvasti knows far better than the current energy minister or Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej that oil prices could easily go higher, especially with winter coming on. The present oil subsidy is simply a vote-getting ploy rather than a measure focusing on our consumers' long-term benefits.

We should look to Denmark as a role model.

After the last oil crisis, they had the vision to foresee that oil prices were headed up and up in the long term and the political will to act accordingly. As a result, the New York Times reports that their country's dependency on imported oil has diminished to almost nil: eg half of the Danes bicycle to work/school - even in the rain - and bicycle lanes abound.

Motion-detectors turn on hotel hallway lights only when somebody walks down the hall.

Along the way, they've developed a thriving alternative-energy programme that has resulted in new jobs (eg their leadership in the wind-turbine industry).

Alas, through our short-sighted choice of leadership, we the people prove time and again that "where there is no vision, the people perish" (Proverbs 29:18).

Burin Kantabutra

Bangkok