No return visit
Re: "Koh Chang bridge likely to cost B10bn", (BP, July 17).
The rot started when the non-serving jail-sentenced gentleman made it open season on the island's so-called development. Three years later I revisited the island and was aghast at what was happening. Resort construction was everywhere. I've never been back.
Bridge to success
Re: "Ruining Koh Chang", (PostBag, July 19).
Interesting that Miro King not only opposes the building of a bridge and writes a pretty derogatory account of Koh Chang and infrastructure, or lack of, and then signs off "LOVES KOH CHANG".
I have recently returned from Koh Chang and similarly have holidayed there for the past 25 years. The island, post-Covid, is desperately in need of a massive injection of cash and therefore tourists.
Many places are closed and falling into disrepair or well on their way to rack and ruin. One resort to the south of the island looks like a place where plagues may start and basically needs bull-dozing or burning.
However, the building of a bridge, which will inevitably be the death-knell for the two ferry companies and their old rolling stock, will help secure investment enabling the island to rejuvenate and recreate itself.
Local businesspeople, I am sure, will agree the building of a bridge is not only long overdue but a great opportunity to secure future income to Koh Chang's employees and residents.
Expat explains
Re: "3 types of expats", (PostBag, July 16).
Songdej Praditsmanont has again said that a mass exodus of expats would be "a drop in the ocean" because there are 20 million tourists, and also there are 49 billionaires that could be taxed. I believe that both reasons are flawed.
Expats drive the upper end of the property market. There are condo developments in Bangkok now that will retail at over 300 million baht. Many will be bought by expats. The property market in Phuket and where I live on Koh Samui are entirely expat-driven.
You cannot compare the cash inflow generated by a tourist on a two-week trip to Pattaya to an expat inflow over decades.
It is not only the property and construction industry we support. It is the expats that keep the shops and restaurants ticking over during low season (and during Covid).
On his second point, Thailand may have many billionaires but it also has one of the largest wealth gaps in the world, so actually has a relatively poor taxable population.
If he actually thinks any government is going to heavily tax the billionaires that own Thailand, he is fantasising.
Trust deficit
Re: "Guns on US streets", (PostBag, July 18).
Dennis Fitzgerald wants to restrict "gun access to those protecting us, mainly the military and police". The right to bear arms is enshrined in the US constitution for a reason.
Those "protecting us" in Thailand however, in case Dennis may not have noticed, have overthrown duly elected governments 13 times and tried nine additional times to do so without success.
The police seem to be in the news frequently for all the wrong reasons, often committing horrific crimes while bearing arms legally.
The constitution of the US is a truly remarkable document which at root presumes adults are capable of being fully responsible for themselves and their families and so provides a governmental structure under which they are enabled to exercise that responsibility lawfully. It is children who cry for protection from "authorities" because they are not capable of being responsible for themselves.
This is the EU model of "woke" government. How is that working out, Dennis?
Try a visit to Canebière, Noailles, and Belsunce, in Marseille at night, or how about a stroll around London's Westminster which had 463 crimes per 1,000 people last year?
Bottoms up
Re: "Airports approved to sell alcohol on Buddhist holy days", (Online, July 5).
Would the policymakers at the Alcoholic Beverage Control Committee provide some statistics to support their opinion that the sale of alcohol at AoT-controlled airports will boost travellers' spending and promote tourism?
Surely the beneficiaries of this action will be limited to a small number of retailers, and from personal experience, the only travellers who will be spending are the ones departing Thailand, not arriving.
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