Integrity lacking
Re: "Poll finds strong opposition to tainted ministers", (BP, March 7).
This article refers to a nationwide KPI poll that reported that only 48.9% of Thais reject cabinet ministers with a history of corruption or serious integrity-related cases. This means that over 50% do not consider this to be a "red line". Only 32.1% prioritised honesty and integrity as ministerial qualities. The title suggests that these results indicate "strong opposition" to ministerial corruption in Thailand.
I disagree. In my opinion, this is a shamefully weak response that falls well short of the moral indignation required to effect any meaningful change to the status quo.
CNX Jon
McCartney revisited
Re: "Man On The Run", (Life, March 6).
Thank you for Tatat Bunnag's exceptional review of Man On The Run, a documentary film directed by Morgan Neville about the life of Paul McCartney from his formation of Wings through the 1970s. Having lived through The Beatles phenomenon from its inception -- I owned vinyl and CD copies of every album, two different bootleg VHS copies of the original Let It Be film, and dozens of books on the subject of the Fabs -- very few of the world events and facts presented in "MOTR" were new to me.
However, as promised in Mr Bunnag's review, the visually engaging process employed by the director effectively tells at least part of the nuanced story of a man gifted in ways most people are not. Macca is the film's "executive producer", so a bit of whitewashing must be forgiven. Indeed, the "benevolent boss trying to create a true musical family circus" theme is well hashed but not without evidence.
When it comes to the soppy ballad, Mull of Kintyre (which Chrissie Hynde dubs "timeless" in the documentary), Mr Neville's evocative treatment of the song's evolution had me teary-eyed. The film ends more than 40 years ago, and look at all McCartney has achieved in the interim (don't miss the two albums recorded with Youth as The Fireman). A sequel seems warranted as Mr Bunnag alludes to "far more archival treasures still unseen".
Khun Bill
Spiritual misreads
Re: "Meditation heals", (PostBag, March 7).
T Ashley, his meditation teacher, and Sadhguru all fail to rightly understand Gautama Buddha's teaching. Theravada Buddhism is entirely founded upon realism. The first Noble Truth is "there is suffering". There is simply no way for the separate self to adopt a technique and practice it such that the first noble truth is no longer true.
The separate self will do anything to protect its habitual activity of separation, and that includes adopting methods to "cure" unhappiness (commonly referred to as depression by those of the materialist persuasion). To the separate self, enlightenment (the cessation of suffering, perfect freedom, or the realisation of truth) is death, and the egoic individual wants nothing whatsoever to do with that terrifying spiritual process.
St John of the Cross wrote revealingly of the nature of what is truly required in The Dark Night of the Soul. Therein, he does not provide a nominal prescriptive technique proposed as a substitute for absolute surrender of the separate "I" because there is none.
Luangphor Viriyang Sirintharo at the Willpower Institute in Los Angeles confesses he wants to "reduce conflict at all levels and attain world peace." This is merely superficial, idealistic nonsense.
Michael Setter
