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The Midnight Cowboy is still in Chiang Mai
Editor;
Late last Saturday night, patiently waiting for a number
of motorists to complete their red-light crossing of Rattanakosin Rd onto
the new extension of Assadathon Rd toward the ‘so-called’ Superhighway,
I discerned - actually more or less in retrospect - that once they crossed
the intersection they tended to drive off in helter-skelter directions.
When finally able to turn onto that new stretch of road
myself, it seemed as if by accident I drove onto the set of a Clint Eastwood
movie without the klieg lights.
Motorcycles were randomly parked - a couple of them even
lying abandoned - on the roadway. Young Thais, usually imbibing themselves
into oblivion at the roadside ‘home-brewed hooch and 2 baht/minute mobile
phone stands’ around there, were excitedly in the street watching some
uniformed individual firing a pistol, whilst running after a couple of
people on a motorcycle some 50 meters or more away.
The real foolish part came when the man’s pistol jammed
or simply was out of ammunition, he frantically slid the barrel back and
forth and even looked into the barrel - whether he also pulled the trigger I
could not see.
The point is the perilous display of gross incompetence
by someone, supposedly responsible for property and people’s protection,
firing a gun under those circumstances.
Pistols are at best accurate at 10 or so meters, and then
only with skilled handling. Firing a pistol at a target further away,
especially while running, has at the most an impact of creating fear.
However, those fired bullets were going somewhere and could injure anyone in
their trajectory.
Looking into the barrel after a gun has jammed is just
plain dim-witted, unless one is striving for one of the annual ‘Darwin’s
- Killed by Stupidity Awards’.
Jon Voight
More on rounders
Dear Sir,
Reading through the pages of the Chiangmai Mail the other day, I
happened upon the letter from Tony Knowles about the game called ‘rounders’.
It brought back very pleasant memories of my school days at St. George’s
College in Mussoorie, India. We too played rounders at school. Besides
playing hockey, football, cricket, boxing, swimming, tennis and athletics,
the unofficial sport at the end of the year, before we all went home for the
winter holidays was ‘rounders’.
Tony is right. This game is similar to baseball. Two
teams played, one that batted and the other fielded. There were three bases
and a spot for the pitcher. A cricket wicket was used as the bat to hit a
tennis ball that was lobbed at the batter. You had three chances to hit the
ball. The ‘home run’ was called a ‘rounder’.
It was a real fun game and quite harmless, except when
one got hit by the tennis ball aimed at the player running for dear life,
trying to get home. Ouch!
But that was allowed. If three players of the batting
team were out, it would then be the fielding team’s turn to bat.
I am convinced that ‘rounders’ existed long before
Columbus set off to look for the new world, where expressions such as
‘pitcher’s mound’, ‘loaded bases’ and all the other jingo used in
baseball ever came to be, not to mention the likes of the legendary Babe
Ruth.
Sincerely,
A Manorite
1962-1966
Is reward open to everyone?
Dear Sir/Madam,
With ref. to your page 1 article, entitled “Top cops
award...”, can you please tell me if the reward mentioned, payable (10,000
and 5000 baht) for info given to police leading to arrest of major/minor
drug dealers applies to farangs giving this info as well? Is this reward
money only for Chiang Rai or does it apply to Chiang Mai as well, and the
rest of Thailand?
Just sign me,
“Anti-Drugs”
Hand me the nine iron
Editor;
I would suggest that the way to deal with youth gangs is
to emulate the policy in our neighboring country Singapore. Bring out the
cane. Simply talking to wayward youths does not seem to have much effect. We
must do something to adjust their attitudes and I would suggest that the way
to do that is to adjust their behinds. Not only will they not be able to
ride their motorbikes for a while after treatment, but they will have the
best of memory joggers every time they try to sit down. It says in the Bible
that if you truly love your children spare them not the rod. I agree.
Don Anderson
Student says, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”
Editor;
After long consecutive exams, my friend and I decided to
go and see a blockbuster at a downtown shopping mall. We did enjoy each
other’s company because we haven’t seen each other for a long while. As
time went by, we thought we should get going home otherwise we would get
stuck in the traffic. During the walk to a bus stand, we were stunned by
what we saw, since it was something that is hardly seen in the present
society (a society where people are significantly interested in themselves).
The scene is still fresh in my mind. A black man walked
along the path carrying a plastic bag from a well-known convenience store.
We saw him giving two bottles of milk to some child beggars. As he walked
past us, we tried to tell him it was one of the nicest things we have ever
seen, but just smiled and walked on. Not far from that, another two young
beggars also had the same bottles of milk as the first two kids.
It might sound ordinary, but it was incredibly
extraordinary to both of us because growing up in Thai culture, we’ve been
taught not to be a racist at all but media manages to make us all become at
least a little racial. We have heard about so many crimes committed by the
blacks in Thailand. So deep inside, a kind of feeling against them gradually
accumulated. I do not mean to criticize them because we all are a part of
international society and one of our visions is to be “open-minded”. The
point that I would like to make is “Don’t judge a book by its cover”
meaning that some books have attractive covers but have nothing inside and
vice versa, so compare the story to the man. For me, this man is very
beautiful both inside and out.
Siripen Singrueng
Misinformation
Dear Sir,
I am an avid reader of your newspaper and look forward to
reading it every week. But I would like to point out an error in your
article about the Nam Theun II power project and EGAT. EGAT did not sign the
PPA agreement, they stated that they would, but Electricite de France (EdF)
the major shareholder in the Nam Theun II power project, pulled out of the
project on July 21st (issued a press release to that effect) and no
replacement investor has been found for the project to date. With no
investor, I assume the project has stalled right now.
Sincerely,
(Name withheld on request)
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