Clean air betrayal
Re: "MPs fail Clean Air Bill," (Editorial, Oct 1).
Pheu Thai dismally failed its northern core base by boycotting voting on the Clean Air Bill, causing this very important bill to fail due to a lack of a quorum. Northerners suffer most from seasonal haze and PM2.5 pollution, and Pheu Thai chaired the bill's drafting committee, yet only 27% of Pheu Thai MPs showed up to vote. This was in stark contrast to the People's Party (90% of its MPs present) and the Bhumjaithai Party (80%).
When your party won't even vote on a bill that it authored and that's vital to your family's health -- it's past time to switch.
Burin Kantabutra
False equations
Re: "In an Irish memorial, I see echoes of Palestine", (Opinion, Oct 3).
Andy Young's commentary, in which she equates the situation in Gaza with the Irish Famine, the famine in Sudan and Hurricane Katrina, is a litany of nonsensical equations.
For one, we have seen pictures of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Gaza City. Do they look like emaciated famine victims? No, they do not.
And the harrowing pictures of children are manipulated Hamas photo ops. None of their parents looks in the least hungry.
We are led to believe that Jews are colonisers, completely ignoring the fact that half of Israeli Jews fled or were expelled from Muslim countries. Israel has two million Arab citizens, while most Muslim countries now have no Jews.
I could make a more poignant historical comparison: More than 80 years ago, following years of anti-Semitic propaganda, some six million Jews were murdered while nearly every country in the world, including Ireland, refused to accept Jewish refugees.
Today's massive anti-Israel propaganda, again, justifies the murder of Jews.
Frank Scimone
Revealing remarks
Re: "Military heads summoned for empty spectacle", (Opinion, Oct 10).
In President Donald Trump's lacklustre speech to the 700 US generals whom he summoned to a meeting in Quantico, Virginia, from their posts all around the world, he said that there are two N words that he would never use. One stands for nuke, and the other one is n***er.
Mr Trump is explicit in boasting that the US has more nukes and they are better than and outnumber those of the Russians and the Chinese.
Mr Trump may not be aware of the consequence that, like the tariff he advocates, the use of nukes is reciprocal too. His Trump Tower in New York will vanish seconds later if he drops a nuke in St Petersburg.
Perhaps he got carried away and thought he was addressing a crowd in a town hall that cheered and believed everything he said.
Even though Mr Trump did not elaborate on the other n-word, it is difficult to convince people that he is not a racist.
There is an old Chinese saying: There are 300 taels of silver buried here, which means one is trying to prove what nobody doubts.
Yingwai Suchaovanich
