People pound
Re: "Overcrowded prisons need reforming", (Opinion, April 10).
Have you ever seen a photo of sleeping conditions at Thai prisons? You haven't. You may have seen pics of other countries' prisons' sleeping conditions, but you have never seen the same for Thailand because Thai prisons don't allow such photos.
Granted, there are a rare few photos taken within Thai prisons, but they're highly staged. In other words, a few select inmates are given clean, new matching t-shirts (to be given back after the photo) and everyone, including perhaps a few dignitaries from town, is shown in the best light, in a non-sleeping area during the day.
Most prisons worldwide are very crowded, but only in Southeast Asia and parts of Africa do inmates have no beds or cots.
In Thai prisons, it's not unusual for an inmate to have a sleeping space as narrow as 33cm, on a concrete floor with no pillow nor mattress, overhead lights on 24/7.
One thin blanket per inmate in southern regions is standard, or two thin blankets for inmates in northern regions. At some prisons, inmates are confined to sleeping areas for up 72 hours at a time but most often, inmates are confined in their narrow spaces for 16 out of each 24-hour cycle.
Stray dogs locked up at dog pounds have more space than inmates at Thai prisons. In some prisons, an inmate doesn't even have enough room to stretch his arms or legs, without thumping into another inmate.
Nek Nestrebla
No comment
Re: "Songkran confusion has tourism promoters red-faced", (BP, April 5).
Since you seem to be using unique parameters to identify unacceptable comments, I suggest you look at this one.
In the online article, scroll down to comment by "Raimund" regarding the tourist in the picture. Then note the four identical comments from a reader using the name "Tanami" all with different up and down thumb numbers.
Aren't multiple duplicate posts a violation? And, again, if you're going to ban comments at least have the courtesy to let the poster know what the issue is so he can correct it. After 6,000+ posts, I can't believe that I make so many errors.
Fred Prager
Thin-skinned?
Re: "Swords drawn", (PostBag, April 7).
One can only hope that Songdej Praditsmanont's threat to sue Eric Bahrt for defamation is 100% tongue-in-cheek. If not, his outrage at being labelled a hypocrite should make him rethink his engagement with PostBag.
If one is really so thin-skinned that a banal accusation of hypocrisy by a contributor known for his extravagant language is enough to send you scuttling off to the nearest police station to file a complaint, one should question just how committed one is to much-needed reforms of the feudal Thai "justice" system.
Indignation and lawsuits are not a valid response to criticism. Argue your case. Refer to letters from the past. We'll judge. PostBag and its limited band of followers are not going to make one iota of difference to how either Thailand or the world speeds to its inevitable demise. In the meantime, let's keep the discourse as meaningful, polite, and most importantly, logical as possible.
Ray Ban
