Rein in the phones
Re: "Phone-free classrooms", (Editorial, March 16). Your editorial refers to Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt's announcement of a new measure to limit smartphone use in classrooms, which "asks students in schools under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to deposit their phones during the school day."
I hope this is a firm prohibition on personal, non-academic phone use, and not just a toothless request.
There is a disturbing scene in the movie Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die, set in the near future, where a substitute high school teacher is confronted with a classroom full of smartphone addicts.
When he inquires if students are permitted to use their phones during class for scrolling and texting, he discovers the students are the ones who make the rules.
When teachers and administrators fear setting firm conditions for optimal classroom learning, the future of our education system and society at large will be at great peril.
CNX Jon
Petrodollar myth
Re: "Middle East shock", (PostBag, March 13).
I find M L Saksiri Kridakorn's comment that Iran's "deeper aim is to choke off the flow of petrodollars to the United States" to be a bit baffling. The US is the world's number one oil producer, and as such, it will be dripping in petrodollars as it sells its own (and Venezuela's) oil at an enormous premium.
If anyone who had inside knowledge had bought the appropriate futures before this pointless war started, the profits would be beyond even the wildest dreams of avarice. What will hurt the American consumer, of course, will be rising gas prices and the ensuing inflation.
Hopefully, they will realise this is just a rerun of the pointless 2003 Iraq War and pressure the US government to put an end to this nonsense.
Tarquin Chufflebottom
Travel chaos risk
Re: "Government moves to rev up fiscal 2026 spending", (BP, March 17).
The next PM might have second thoughts about the job when considering the elephant (mammoth) in the room; ie, the Iran war is still ongoing, despite the bravado, the pumps are already struggling, and Songkran is around the corner.
The new PM will have a tough time convincing the electorate to stay put during this period due to the energy crisis.
If they don't, Thailand's oil reserves will be heavily diminished within only days. And how to solve the scenario of vehicles stuck on the road in every direction with no fuel, water or food in hellish heat?
Rather you than me, mate. I'm staying put in Bangers.
Ellis O'Brien
