Prawit's financial wizardry

Re: "Champagne corks pop in Prawit home", (PostBag, Dec 8).

That the selflessly humble defence minister and deputy PM could parlay his modest official salaries into an 87 million baht fortune while clearly not skimping on life's little pleasures clearly qualifies him as an economic master. He should be rewarded with the extra portfolio of finance minister, although some of his army mate colleagues-cum-politicians offer stiff competition for performing financial miracles seemingly out of nothing.

Meanwhile, his display of conspicuous sufficiency economics is the perfect model of that philosophy as practised by its loudest advocates. And with every confidence that he will be found not guilty of any wrongdoing, his already granted amnesty will not be needed.

Felix Qui

Living in a fake reality

Re: "Fake news helping to create a crisis of public knowledge", (Opinion, Dec 9).

For more than a century the traditional media consisted of mostly nameless and faceless people deciding what does and does not get printed and broadcast. The new online social media has democratised the means of news production and dissemination, something all good people browsing the internet should be celebrating. As a consequence, online journalism and citizen media are also on the rise.

Whether we like it or not, social media has become a personal media and it is bad for any politician to stick their nose in people's personal media. It is rather strange that Donald Trump has become the champion of fake news by calling all US-based media channels as sources of fake news. It is like the pot calling the kettle black.

The ethical problems of people like Mr Trump are largely responsible for corrupting personal media. According to journalist Sheryl Attkisson: "We are living amid an artificial reality, persuaded to believe it's real by astroturf engineered to look like grassroots."

Kuldeep Nagi

A matter of tech security

Re: "Thailand urged to drop 2G for 5G use", (Business, Dec 6).

This is bad advice which Thai regulators should resolutely ignore. Handsets operating on the newer bands are insecure by design, engineered with numerous access paths from the air to the hardware, undocumented and (unlike on a computer) not under the hardware owner's control. Those concerned with personal and information security use 2G-only handsets for voice/text communication, leaving other tasks to securable hardware like PCs.

Should some people wish to waste bandwidth on 5G networks playing games, watching films and using VR to escape to another and better world using devices which threaten their personal and information security, that's their choice, but regulators should not facilitate such frivolities at the expense of those who don't want to be tracked, to be monitored by predators or advertisers, or to become victims of data theft.

Jeffrey Race

Gift isn't really giving

Re: "Govt pledges help for farmers", (BP Dec 9).

A pledge to poor farmers may bring the worst scenario for the Thai government. This may be a New Year gift to underprivileged people, but it may also become a debt for the young generation. If I were a categorised farmer, I would get into debt again and again as I believe the government would support me if I defaulted. I wish the government would try an alternative method.

Ohayo Tokyo

It just keeps getting worse

I don't care, Gene Davis, (PostBag, Dec 8) if the US Congress recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital. I don't care if God Almighty did! It's a total violation of international law for a country to set up its capital in occupied territory.

American policy and Israel are the root causes of international terrorism and the situation will get tremendously worse before it gets better. How wonderful it is to see Donald Trump achieving his aim of making America grate again.

Eric Bahrt

Sex campaign set to backfire

Re: "Fliers warned about sex trade", (BP, Dec 9).

I am afraid this campaign has reverse results. It discloses shameful facts of the country and may give tourists the wrong idea. Authorities should look for other practical ways to warn tourists.

RH Suga

Not a fare deal at all

The taxi and bus cooperatives in Pattaya run a cartel to consistently overcharge passengers and do not use their meters. In addition many drivers are aggressive if the passenger complains. The buses drive recklessly and endanger the safety of the passengers.

It seems that police and Pattaya City Hall do little to rectify this situation. Yes, they have the occasional purge, but after a day or two things return to as they previously were.

Overcharging, for example.

From the junction of Thep Praya and Thep Prasit to Central Festival on Second Road is 3.4km. The charge for this journey is 300 baht.

With the Grab Taxi service, it is 170 baht, a more realistic and fair price, and the taxi driver has to pay a commission to Grab Taxi.

If you challenge a bus driver on the fare, some get aggressive.

They may use the F word and on one occasion a driver snatched the money from my hand when I insisted I would not pay the overcharged sum.

I could go on and on.

If someone gets killed, maimed or injured, the police and City Hall are to blame as their complacency and failure to carry out their duties have contributed to the situation and are the root cause of the problems. Yes, the root cause is the failure of the police and City Hall's obligation to do their duty.

If the police and City Hall did what they are paid for and enforced the law and traffic and taxi rules, Pattaya would be a safer place.

Barry "Baz" Jones

Contact: Bangkok Post Building

136 Na Ranong Road Klong Toey, Bangkok 10110

fax: +02 6164000 Email: postbag@bangkokpost.co.th

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