OPINION

Global jitters

Re: "Trade war will test govt", (Editorial, Feb 3).

US President Donald Trump flashed out the beginning of the first week of February by hiking tariffs for some countries. As part of that, Mr Trump gave a one-month postponement to Mexico and Canada but kept a 10% tariff hike for China. Global tensions will certainly rise. Now, other developing and developed countries are wondering which countries will be next.

Motivational issues

Re: "No point in proofing", (PostBag, Jan 26) and "English test flaws", (PostBag, Jan 25).

There were two recent PostBag letters talking about problems with flawed English tests. As a long-time PostBag reader, I know this has come up before. But for me, this is the tip of a problem that is much bigger.

I came to Thailand many years ago. At that time, many people could get about 30,000 baht monthly as "a native English speaker". I did that for one semester. The only other qualification was to have a degree. I had an MBA, but none of the others in my school had graduated beyond high school. No one ever told me what to do. There was no book. Thai English teachers could barely hold a conversation in English and ignored me.

I tried to ask students very simple questions to try and have an English exchange to do my job. And mostly, their faces would glaze over as if they had never heard English before. I was told I was at a highly regarded public school. My students were all seniors a few months short of leaving school. I was told all had two years of required English. There were a few exceptions. I lasted one semester and moved on.

Later, I bought a condo near an expensive international school. Students would pour out of the school and walk to a mall nearby. Thai and foreign students would speak English freely together.

Some things must be considered in any discussion on the use of the English language in Thailand -- one is that Thailand has very active movie and music industries in the Thai language. For that reason, there is less motivation for many Thai people to seek more international exposure.

I lived for four years in Albania, where no active industry created its own movies or modern music. With barely 5 million population, it had one university. But I had a wide circle of professional friends whose English was totally functional. In their case, they had a strong motivation to learn English and Italian and Greek too. But the vast majority of Thais have little motivation to learn another language.

AI game changer

Re: "Was DeepSeek-R1 release a Sputnik moment for AI?", (Opinion, Feb 7).

As a long-time open-source advocate, IT practitioner, and paying user of AI (artificial intelligence) services, I was very excited about DeepSeek's free release of its R1 and Coder model.

This development carries significant implications for Thailand, especially in the context of the ongoing economic race between the US and China. The US has designated AI as the key technology to put it back on top. However, the recent announcement by DeepSeek shows that efforts to hinder China's progress through sanctions, like the CHIPS and Science Act, are proving futile. History shows that in the final stages, the rising power will find ways to surpass the incumbent power. While many avenues for progress may remain unexplored for the pursuer, the leading power can only engage in a game of whack-a-mole, as the rising power often has already embraced most technological advancements getting into this position. DeepSeek is an example of this phenomenon.

For Thailand, the launch of the fully open-source DeepSeek model presents an opportunity to further embrace the AI revolution and, at the same time, adopt the open-source model more fully.

DeepSeek is designed to be distilled and further trained for specialised applications. This enables companies and institutions in Thailand to develop a model that possesses capabilities comparable to those that have cost American big tech companies trillions of dollars to develop.

But without the support of the Thai government, this vision may not be fully realised. It's time for the Thai government to fully jump in with both feet on Open Source and AI.

Shaking things up

Re: "Call for Thai team to handle Trump", (BP, Feb 6), "Let's hope Trump takes sensible Greenland path", (Opinion, Feb 2), "Contract be dammed", (PostBag, Feb 6), "Fentanyl fantasy", (PostBag, Feb 6), and "Ethnic cleansing", (PostBag, Feb 6).

President Donald Trump, the most powerful man in the world, has picked up the Earth and shaken it like a snow globe. Then he popped inside to evaluate the fear, anxiety, derision, and confusion that has been stirred up and uses it skillfully to change the world.

Let's visit the two articles and three letters noted above to see examples.

1) Anxiety: "We are worried Trump's policies will affect international trade, investment, and industries in Thailand," said FTI's Kriengkrai Thiennukul. The Thai Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry, and Banking has called upon the government to create a "war room" to consider the matter.

2) Derision: Columnist Gwynne Dyer says about Trump: "This is an ignorant man speaking in hackneyed clichés. Why should we pay attention?" Dyer also disingenuously claims Russia controls the US president and that Trump "now shows some signs of cognitive decline". Seriously?

3) Confusion: I might say that Songdej Praditsmanont seems like a man waving a CCP flag in the vacant space above his shoulders in the morning. CK Hutchison Holdings is the operational arm of the CCP's Belt and Road initiative, a transnational industrial policy created to influence the policies of other nations. It uses debt trap strategies to bankrupt poor borrowing nations. Recently, Panama decided to drop their agreement with China regarding the canal as soon as Trump brought up the opportunity.

4) Confusion: The pseudonymous Felix Qui echoes the fundamentally illogical argument (the problem is the problem) of former Mexican presidents when he states, "The United States has a serious drug problem because millions of Americans are desperate to use drugs." Everyone is an addict. It is a consequence of ubiquitous selfishness. Thailand has a methamphetamine problem. Thai authorities wisely do not blame addicts; they seize drugs and destroy them. And where do the precursors used by labs in Myanmar to manufacture methamphetamine come from? As with fentanyl, the BBC on Feb 4 reported that "China is the primary source of the precursor chemicals used to produce fentanyl".

5) Fear and derision: "I knew that Trump is unstable, but this, together with his other crazy policies, proves he is totally unhinged," by Miro King. Don't worry Mr King, President Trump is just shaking your snowball.

The US and the world need a good shaking up to produce necessary changes. Is PM Paetongtarn going to do it? Kamala Harris? Who then?

Bua Noi's fate

Re: "Police seize orangutans, exotic animals", (BP, Jan 23) & "Unlucky break for Bua Noi", (BP, Nov 24, 2024).

I recently met Bua Noi, the 35-year-old female gorilla who arrived in Thailand from Germany when she was three. She is indeed the world's loneliest gorilla. She stares blankly at me and at her other hourly visitors. About every three minutes, she walks around her cage and sits and stares between the green and rusty iron bars.

The owner of PATA Zoo shows his paying guests a smug video in a small room before admitting them into the area where Bua Noi has spent nearly her entire life since age 3. I tried to tape the video but was told that filming the video was forbidden.

It was difficult for me to endure the 15-minute-long Thai video that was clearly produced to show how ridiculous animal advocates were for trying to free Bua Noi from 40 years of imprisonment. As I watched it, most of my hope that Bua Noi would ever be freed vanished. Even Cher, who launched a campaign in 2020, was unable -- with all her star power -- to help free Bua Noi.

To be fair, I thought all the animals at the PATA Zoo had clean cages and did appear to be well cared for. Yet, for me, many appeared spiritually vacant. I understand that the PATA Zoo owner believes that his zoo allows Thai students and other visitors to learn more about the animals under his care, and yes ... I saw animals there today that I have never seen before in my life.

Many appeared bored to death since you can only do so much in small concrete cages without barely any natural elements. The animals were well-fed, and cute little goats were running around everywhere.

Although my goal in visiting the PATA Zoo was to see the situation for myself and the welfare of Bua Noi and other animals, I am still cautious about advocating too strongly for the closure of the PATA Zoo or for Bua Noi's freedom.

What is the solution for these animals and, above all, for Thailand? Should we just enforce existing laws? Or should we develop a better plan and collaborate partner with a reputable international animal rights group to provide care and shelter for rescued wild animals?

Thailand is slowly moving in the right direction and trying to erase its bad reputation as a transit for wildlife trafficking.

The latest example is on Jan 22 when a joint operation led by Thai authorities, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, with support from the Wildlife Justice Commission, arrested people suspected of being behind the trafficking of critically endangered animals, among them three orangutans.

I still have hope that Bua Noi (Little Lotus) will maybe have a few days in a place where she can see the sky or feel the Earth.

A place where she can meet another gorilla before she dies, somewhere out of Thailand and outside of her current lifelong cage on top of Bangkok's PATA shopping mall.

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