OPINION

Trump's band back already

Re: "More than Trump", (PostBag, Jan 24).

In his latest epistle, "More than Trump", Michael Setter exceeds all expectations. Despite Trump's felony conviction for attempting to hide hush-money payments to a prostitute and his boasts about the Capitol Hill skirmish, Mr Setter sees moral excellence in his policies.

On his first day of office, the newly installed president saw fit to pardon those who had committed and been duly found guilty of "unofficial or unauthorised use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims". In other words, the sitting US president's act on day one of taking office was to publicly, and boastfully as usual, endorse terrorism against the United States of America.

That seems a bit weird to me. I can't see how anyone can see such an act as consistent with moral excellence in policy as Mr Setter does. Is it really OK to assault police doing their job? Is it really OK to resort to violence for a selfish political agenda? Is such a message in any way moral, just or decent?

Those zealots practise not love or compassion or care or even simple respect, but hate for their neighbours, especially those from far worse-off nations desperate to come and work hard to make the US a stronger, richer nation.

Also worth noting is that, contrary to Trump's persistent lies to the contrary, in coming to the US, they reduce the rates of violent and property crime: every study confirms that immigrants to the US, including illegal immigrants, commit less violent and property crime than do natural-born Americans. But Trump and his religiously driven acolytes care no more for facts than they do either for good morals, or the teachings of Christ.

As Matthew puts it in Chapter 21, Verse 17, Jesus says as he drives out those buying and selling in the temple:

"My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations But you have made it a den of robbers."

Voters happy to ignore flaws

Re: "More than Trump", (PostBag, Jan 24).

Michael Setter has shared his understanding of his fellow PostBag fans. He starts by claiming Trump's victory as a moral one, justified by an unclear attack on the UN and the World Health Organization. Then Mr Setter goes on to tell us that "most PB contributors do not like Donald Trump". I am one of those.

But I suggest all PB readers should remember we are small in number. Just reading a good newspaper at a time when extreme digital media is being accused of twisting so much of what we learn.

We must remember that in the US, a majority popular vote in recent years has had little to do in electing the US president.

I suggest many people are aware that now President Trump has well-known flaws of character. And we also know that we, as a group, have chosen to ignore that in ways we would never have done in the past.

Kids have seen it all before

Today I watched a rerun of the original Final Destination movie on True Visions. Pretty good for its age but nowadays its mayhem is rather tame.

However, I was pushed to decide what was more disturbing, the movie's gore or that covered by Thai news channels, in which, inter alia, daily road carnage and domestic violence are graphically shown (in the Land of Smiles of course).

The impact on youngsters is obviously not considered too much but they probably see worse on their phones nowadays.

But some might ask Mum or Dad why there are censored blackouts plastered everywhere and what they mean; in which case, parents tactfully move elsewhere.

No point in proofing

Re: "English test flaws", (PostBag, Jan 25).

Like James Fairhead I have been an English teacher in Thailand for over 20 years teaching mainly secondary, tertiary and corporate levels and I, too, am frequently horrified by examples of poor English on test papers.

As a brief example, on one secondary level paper the students were instructed to "Place the cosset from of verb" (sic). That should have read "Place the correct form of the verb".

When teacher training, I suggested to my superior, a fluent English-speaking Thai gentleman, that, as part of our service, we could apply to the authorities to proof-read papers before they are printed.

"No point," came the reply, "they think you will sell the answers". I leave readers to heave a sigh of bewildered resignation.

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