Olympic tiddlywinks
Re: "Hip-hop vibe: Breakers get single shot at glory in Paris", (Sports, July 10).
With some obscure sports included in the Olympic Games, such as skateboarding, for example, is it not time, for diversity's sake, to include national sports?
Britain, for example, could have the Shove Half Penny or tiddlywinks. What could be more riveting than seeing an attempt to get a penny between the lines on the board or knocking the opponent's penny onto the lines? And the tension of watching a tiddle or a wink?
Fly, penguin, fly
Re: "'Penguin' faces record 25th lese majeste charge", (BP, March 23).
I read with disbelief that 26-year-old political activist Parit "Penguin" Chiwarak received a two-year prison sentence in court for a less majeste law violation. And he still faces 25 more charges of else majeste. These sentences run consecutively.
Fortunately, Penguin has already fled.
Let's hope that he has not chosen to flee to Cambodia, Laos, China, Burma, or Vietnam but is headed to Europe, the US, or Australia and is safe from foul play or being deported to Thailand.
If he has made it to France, he will be given asylum and receive a monthly stipend from the French government.
No matter what your feelings are about Thailand's reigning monarch, I'm sure most people would agree that a young, non-violent man whose "crimes" are his expression of opinion should not be sent to prison for 50 years.
Courtocracy rules
Re: "MFP's future uncertain", (Editorial, Aug 1) & "Opinion split on push to remove PM", (BP, July 29).
Obviously, we live in a constitutional courtocracy led by conservative forces with total disregard for the aspirations of the people.
So sad.
That seems to be the reason why Thailand is going nowhere and cannot match Japan, Korea, Taiwan or Singapore.
Fool's gold
Re: "No 'wow' factor", (PostBag, July 29).
I choked on my Weetabix when reading Michael Setter's quote from Aristotle about the importance of keeping promises.
Michael's hero, Donald Trump, promised as president to make Mexico pay for the border wall and build thousands of roads and canals, among countless other meaningless soundbites.
I can't quote Aristotle, but my grandmother once said there's one born every minute.
Jumbo problems
Re: "Thai wild elephants to undergo new 'behaviour modification'", (BP, July 28).
My farmer friend responded to the above with, "It's crazy that we have man-killing elephants allowed to wander around. We had a visit last night, and they bent our gate again."
I countered, "Habitat loss; poor elephants!" He replied, "The locals don't accept this city people view! Farming has been done here for 80 years, and elephants have only become a problem in the last 15 years. They have a huge area inland from us, but they got clever and scrumping on farms is easier and tastier than forest vegetation. Only recently learned how to eat durian. Reason number two is the government releasing tamed elephants to the forest that don't have the ability to feed themselves, and the herd never accepts outsiders."
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