Construction safety
Re: "Clock ticking for buried workers as rescue team toils", (BP, Aug 29).
Seeing the front-page news about yet another horrific mega accident on a megaproject is a stark reminder that safety in Thailand is just a pipe dream. Just like the rescue pipe, the rescuers are trying to push through a solid rock.
What puzzles me most is who is actually building the railway and, above all, who is in charge of the project.
It seems the workers, including the supervisor, are predominantly Chinese, who are notoriously lax when it comes to safety. The tunnel is literally collapsing around their ears!
A saying in China
Re: "Train tunnel being built in NE Thailand collapses, trapping 3", (BP, Aug 25).
The Chinese have a popular word for this phenomenon -- "Tofu-dreg construction", symbolising the practice of hasty and substandard building work. It results from widespread corruption in the construction industry, facilitated by using shoddy materials and shortcut methods. In China, there have been reports of infrastructure, such as roads, buildings, and bridges, collapsing. One wonders if this is a sign of the "tofu" pandemic spreading to Thailand.
Never again
Re: "Pheu Thai opens door to Dems", (BP, Aug 29).
"Shame, eternal shame, nothing but shame." I have voted for the Democrat Party all my life, but their decision to join Pheu Thai is against all that they stand for, and I will never vote for them again.
Man loses credibility
Re: "Petitioner seeks new PM's dismissal", (BP, Aug 29).
Many judicial systems around the world have provisions for what is called a "vexatious litigant". A vexatious litigant is someone who frequently takes legal action solely to harass or subdue an adversary, often on flimsy grounds. Is it time that repeat petitioner Ruangkrai Leekitwattana was declared a vexatious litigant and barred from further petitioning?
Bad sportsmanship
Re: "Sinner, Alcarz survive round one wobbles", (Sport, Aug 29).
This week, Australian Daria Saville, who is fighting her way back to fitness from an injury that has seen her ranking tumble to No.32, just lost a first-round match at the US Tennis Open, as have dozens of other players, but she finished with a real dummy spit by smashing a good racquet to pieces.
My grandmother's Christmas Day voice, "Save the wrapping paper," told me not to waste anything, so racquet destruction seems indulgent and petulant. The unwanted racquet could have been donated to a charity.
A small fine is meaningless and the racquet would have been provided by a sponsor so what can be done to encourage better behaviour and more positive role modelling? The simplest answer would be make her, or any other racquet smashers, play the rest of the set with the broken racquet. It wouldn't take long for this offence to stop. It would be easier if these players just grew up.
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