The Editor,
Regarding your article from last week’s CMM, Page 3, Public Transport
plans to move into higher gear: When I read the first sentence and it said,
“May get sooner off the ground than expected,” I felt a kind of relief.
I really thought something was happening, but reading on it is obvious that
this is once again just because some public sectors probably screamed too
loud and through this, they are quiet for a while.
A lot of hot air - once again. Reading on, “The
Ministry of Transport is to hold a meeting”. When? On the day when Xmas
and Songkran fall on the same day?
The Cabinet has approved 147 million baht - for the
study? Or for the urgently needed electric cars?
The study is finished in 2006? At the end of 2006? Or
will they not make it in time? What do they study? How many more cancer and
lung deaths are related to the smog? Or how the relation of bronchitis
related drug prescriptions in the Chiang Mai area is to the prescriptions in
the South?
Another thing that confuses me: In Chiangmai Mail No. 27
(the week before) you talk of an approved budget by the PM and the
government? In my humble opinion (maybe I lived too long in the United
States), if we have a problem, we address the problem, we look for a
solution, if we find it, we try to make a budget and get its approval. If
this is done we get to work and solve the problem. Pronto! But this seems to
be done the other way around.
Did anybody approve a budget for the study or a limit on
how many more pollution related sicknesses have to be stated until we get
something done? I always used to laugh when people said that the watches go
backwards in Thailand, but now being back here, it frustrates me even more
than all the foreigners around me who have more patience and acceptance than
they should or are supposed to have. I just see how it could be done
different and more efficient but this ‘learning process’ will need many
more years to get through the Thai way of thinking.
Very frustrated Thai Ajarn
