OPINION

Fix what's broken

Re: "Safety failures cost lives", (Editorial, Jan 16).

I have been a civil engineer for 60+ years, working in many countries but not Thailand. In my many years of experience, I have never known a situation where construction has been permitted over live public traffic of any kind. Roads, railways and waterways have had to be closed or diverted during such work.

It costs more money, but saves lives, so it should be mandated here and planned into the projects right from their inception.

Trump-like weave

Re: "Online limits", (PostBag, Jan 14), & "Social media ban for kids", (BP, Jan 12).

I have to admit that I'm getting to quite enjoy Khun Jason A Jellison's rambling letters. They're a bit like Trump's "weave"; you never know where they'll lead.

This time, Khun Jason supports the ban on social media for young people. With a somewhat sketchy account of a student confronting him, "some years ago", with a fake social media account (coyly not named), he relates that he couldn't possibly have a social media account because he was brought up by people born in the late 1890s. We know that Khun Jason is not good with figures.

That matters not a jot, but is just part of the joy of reading his fanciful anecdotes that, when he was born in 1975 (now 50), those "people" would have been at least 75 years old. I doubt they were much involved in his adoption or not of Facebook in the early 2000s when he was 30ish.

Interesting also that in a recent letter Jason described receiving a constant stream of messages from around the world (including, randomly, one from a "pen pal" in Saudi Arabia advising him, somewhat superfluously, as a gay man, not to visit that country). I guess all that correspondence could be conducted by email, but it would certainly require a real determination to stay away from social media.

As I say, at the end of the day, almost as entertaining as listening to a speech from President Trump.

Betraying Nobel

Re: "Trump and Machado in talks", (World, Jan 16).

I am deeply disappointed that Maria Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, has given her well-deserved, priceless prize to Donald Trump, the most aggressive, warmongering and dangerous man on Earth. The prize is non-transferable, and by doing so, she debased the prize, and Alfred Nobel is turning in his grave, whilst the Nobel Prize committee must be furious.

I hope that the medal is burning Donald Trump's fingers!

Missing a beat

Re: "Trump and Machado in talks", (World, Jan 16).

You can give away your dignity or a symbol of your achievements, but the recipient doesn't then get these qualities inferred upon them.

María Corina Machado has passed on her Nobel Peace medal to Donald Trump, a person not deserving it based on this recent actions. It is an unworthy political stunt by a desperate leader.

If Usain Bolt gave his 100m Olympic gold medal to Trump he wouldn't be able to run it in 9.58s given he probably can't run at all. If he tried, the subsequent heart attack might actually lead to more peace and goodwill around the world and certainly at home.