Reference: Loud bar music makes you thirsty, Bangkok Post, July 30, 2008

While there may be a correlation between sales of beer and loudness of music at bars in France (Loud bar music makes you thirsty, Bangkok Post, July 30, 2008), the principle likely only applies over a limited range of loudness; for one often encounters business establishments in Thailand blasting their music so loudly that they are virtually unapproachable.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Rally against Tesco, Bangkok Post, July 30, 2008

It is reported that the spread of innovative and efficient retailing methods throughout Thailand in the form of mini-marts such as Tesco Lotus Express stores is a threat to traditional and inefficient retailers; and concludes that the solution to the problem is to retard innovation (Rally against Tesco, Bangkok Post, July 30, 2008). Such a Luddite approach to the confrontation between old and new in the retail industry does not serve the interest of either the consumer or the traditional retailer. All concerned parties would be served best if retailing innovations were encouraged. Government intervention if any should be directed toward training traditional retailers in modern retailing methods and not to protect ignorance and inefficiency at the expense of the consumer.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Environmental extremism exposed




Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Obama returns to face McCain music over missed GI visit, Bangkok Post, July 28, 2008

The issues in the U.S presidential campaign making news headlines have included everything from the war in Iraq down to inane questions of patriotism but have conspicuously excluded the Kyoto Protocol, a proposal by mad scientists that the earth's temperature can be raised or lowered by controlling carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. We may infer from its absence that the Kyoto Protocol is dead, and that, with any luck, it will soon to be just as stone dead as its predecessor the Montreal Protocol that we were told back then was our only salvation from death by UV radiation. It was based on the folly that natural cyclical changes in the ozone layer of the atmosphere were caused by human activity. Neither of these Protocols is benign. Bad science makes for bad policy and bad policy is injurious to society.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: The win-win way for Cambodia and Thailand, Bangkok Post, July 23, 2008

There is neither opportunity nor need for anyone to win in the difficult situation created by the intercession of the ICJ with an opinion that was in violation of an existing bilateral treaty that was in force at the time that the ICJ issued its problematic and ambiguous verdict (The win-win way for Cambodia and Thailand, Bangkok Post, July 23, 2008). The rational way out of a problem created by the incompetence of the ICJ is to remove the ICJ completely from the issue and to continue to pursue bilateral negotiations with the current government of the region with the 1904 treaty as the starting point.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Thaksin's renaissance man, Bangkok Post, July 22, 2008

Citizens of Thailand would be better served by their public servants if these servants gave their allegiance to Thailand first and foremost instead of swearing to serve and to obey individuals and vested interests outside of government (Thaksin's renaissance man, Bangkok Post, July 22, 2008). And yet, as the article shows, public servants, and even those aspiring to public service, openly declare that they are proud of their unwavering allegiance, subservience, and obedience to a single private citizen rather than to the country they apparently wish to serve.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: The great flood, Bangkok Post, July 20, 2008

An "Earth Alert" article in the Bangkok Post (The great flood, Bangkok Post, July 20, 2008) says that a rising sea level caused by man-made climate change is responsible for floods in Bangkok. I have looked at the sea level data for the last twenty years from various measuring stations in Southeast Asia provided by the University of Hawaii and I have found absolutely no trend that could lead one to conclude that the sea level is rising. On the other hand, we have very good evidence that the city of Bangkok is sinking due to subsidence. To address the flooding problem effectively we should be true to the real causes of the problem instead yielding to climate change hysteria.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: The high seas, Bangkok Post, July 21, 2008

There was a great migration of indentured plantation workers from India to the Mauritius, the Fiji Islands and the Caribbean as the slave trade subsided in the 19th century. This emigration has been romanticized in these terms: "India is one of those countries where for people to leave is not an easy thing. There was this fear of crossing the waters. What did it mean for farmers living in deep interior of the country who had never seen the sea? For them to get into a ship and cross the ocean, it's a kind of heroism" (The high seas, Bangkok Post, July 21, 2008). Sadly, it was not heroism but desperation. Now, as then, a social class and caste system cuts a deep gulf between the haves and the havenots in the Sub-continent; and now, as then, the havenots go to extreme measures to leave their pathetic condition. To the upper classes these ventures may seem like heroism but to the lower classes it is their escape from a poverty trap. There was no adventure and no heroism in the mass emigration of Indian indentured workers to Mauritius in the 19th century just as there is none today in a similar emigration of indentured laborers from the Sub-continent to the Middle East, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Islam's last stand, Bangkok Post, July 20, 2008

The article uses the phrase "Islamic world" over and over again in begging the Sunnis to stand with Shiite Iran in its standoff with the Israel-USA axis (Islam's last stand, Bangkok Post, July 20, 2008). It's not going to happen. There is no such thing as an Islamic world. Factional hatred among Muslims is more intense than any common cause. If push comes to shove Sunni Arabs will back the USA in a New York minute to guard against regional domination by Shiite Iran. The Americans know this reality and have played this diplomatic game very well in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: World Bank says Asian cities at risk, Bangkok Post, July 19, 2008

The article says that global warming has caused a rise in the sea level and an increase in the frequency and intensity of natural disasters in Asia. These claims are baseless and false. The article mentions the recent cyclone in Burma, typhoon in the Philippines, and earthquake in China in the context of global warming. None of these events has anything to do with global warming and all of them occurred during a period of global cooling. The global warming hype is mostly misinformation and it is not benign. Bad policy derived from bad science is dangerous.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Study: Mars had huge oceans, Bangkok Post, July 17, 2008

With reference to climate changes in Mars (Mars had huge oceans, Bangkok Post, July 17, 2008), it is worthy of note that although the earth is now in a cooling phase, simultaneously with its just concluded warming and polar melt period that has been attributed to human activity, Mars underwent similar changes with warming and melting (National Geographic News, February 2007) and those changes can surely not be ascribed to human activity nor to the use of fossil fuels on the planet earth. The IPCC is in a pickle.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: The energy crunch: crisis or opportunity, Bangkok Post, July 17, 2008

According to an article in the Bangkok Post, the high price of crude oil is actually a blessing in disguise because it has encouraged the development and use of alternative sources of energy such as hydrogen, ethanol, and biodiesel ( The energy crunch: crisis or opportunity, Bangkok Post, July 17, 2008). It should be noted in this context that hydrogen is not an alternative source of energy but only a method - an a very inefficient method - of delivering energy from fossil fuels. The hydrogen that you use in your hydrogen fueled car is made from natural gas. It should also be mentioned that ethanol and biodiesel have been made profitable not just by rising oil prices but by government and carbon trading subsidies. As well, the rapid increase in their production, though once pushed as a panacea by global warmists, is now being derided by the very same activists as an environmental disaster See "Asia's growing oil palm farms seen as climate change threat", Bangkok Post, October 2007, "Orangutans may be first great apes to die out", Bangkok Post, April 6, 2008, and "Crime against humanity: biofuels are harming developing countries", Bangkok Post, July 12, 2008. It's global warming hysteria gone bad. Bad science can be harmful and does not always offer the safer option.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Denmark's pragmatic environmentalist, Bangkok Post, July 13, 2008

The article quotes Denmark's Minister of Climate and Energy to state that the country's energy policy consists of reducing CO2 emissions, promoting renewable energy sources, and pushing an international agenda for carbon trading between developed and developing countries (Denmark's pragmatic environmentalist, Bangkok Post, July 13, 2008). Before one takes this Minister of Climate seriously, one should consider that the Danish economy under her government's care is in recession. A country that has created a cabinet level post for "climate" affairs has made brash assumptions about a relationship between human activity and climate that trivializes the real questions with respect to the global warming issue. As for carbon trading, I find it to be a thinly disguised method of neo-colonialism. It will keep the rich countries rich and the poor countries poor by allowing developed countries to pay undeveloped countries to stay undeveloped.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: A new novel searches for home, Bangkok Post, July 12, 2008

In a book review (A new novel searches for home, Bangkok Post, July 12, 2008), the author of the emigrant genre novel "Little hut of leaping fishes", a story set in China and written in English by a Malaysian author, is quoted as saying that non-native speakers are better at creative experimentation with English because they are not burdened down with adhering to the rules of the language. The sentiment, though profound, is utter nonsense. The English know their language not as a set of rules but as a pathological way to communicate in the way they do. Their language evolved accordingly. Nobody but nobody can play with the English language like the English.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: More sex is good, Bangkok Post, July 10, 2008

A survey by Finnish scientists showed that older Finnish men who had sex less frequently than one time a week had an erectile dysfunction rate of 7.9% while those who did it more than once a week suffered an erectile dysfunction rate of only 3.2%. They concluded from these data that infrequency of sex causes erectile dysfunction. Kindly note that survey data may contain correlation information but they do not contain causality information. The observed correlation could mean that sex infrequency causes erectile dysfunction as claimed, but it could also mean that erectile dysfunction causes sex infrequency, or that a third unobserved variable causes both sex infrequency and erectile dysfunction. It is not possible to determine which of these causalities is true without a controlled experiment.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Global warming temperature data, June 2008

According to the monthly global mean temperature anomaly data published by NASA, the monthly mean temperature of the earth's surface in June 2008 was 14.26C, 0.28 degrees cooler than in June 2007 when it was 14.54C. To make sure that the data for the month of June is not a fluke one may compare six-month moving averages. In June of 2008 that average was 14.44C, 0.33 degrees cooler than the same average one year ago when it was 14.77C. It should be mentioned that over the last 12 months human activity has generated more greenhouse gases than ever before in any other 12-month period. Yet, the earth did not get warmer. It got colder. The idea that fossil fuel consumption directly attenuates global surface temperature has been proven wrong.This alleged relationship is the basis of the Kyoto Protocol and of its extension to 2020 and beyond now sought by the global warmists.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

G8 +8

Although the agenda of the G8 is global in scope its representation is not. The group consists of the USA, the UK, Germany France, Italy, Canada, Japan, and Russia. Europe and North America are heavily represented. Asia does not have adequate representation. Africa, Australia, and South America are not represented at all. In the emerging new world order, these meetings might be expanded to include another group of eight nations, that we may call the +8 Group, to include countries like China, India, Brazil, Australia, Indonesia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa. Since the meetings are usually a two-day affair, the first day might be allocated for each group of eight to meet separately and prepare for the second day when all sixteen could sit together at the same table to formulate global strategy in a more global setting.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: G8 climate statement pathetic, Bangkok Post, July 9, 2008

The global warmists have been roundly rebuffed at the 2008 G8 summit (G8 climate statement pathetic, Bangkok Post, July 9, 2008). They wanted a "commitment" to a specified greenhouse gas reduction by 2020. They would have settled for the G8 to "seriously consider" a reduction by 2020. They came away with nothing. They got no "commitment" and nothing to "seriously consider". All they got was a "shared vision" and that was for 2050, not for 2020. The message to the global warmists is clear. Thanks but no thanks.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: D8 warns of disaster from food, fuel prices, Bangkok Post, July 9, 2008

It is reported that the main agenda item in a meeting of eight Islamic nations in Malaysia is the high price of rice (D8 warns of disaster from food, fuel prices, Bangkok Post, July 9, 2008). The price of rice rose rapidly in April and peaked at the end of that month. It has since fallen - so much so that now we have rice farmers protesting the low price of rice. It often happens that by the time bureaucrats respond to a problem the winds have shifted and only hot air remains.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Charter set for ratification, Bangkok Post, July 9, 2008

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is touting a new improved version of their charter that still clings to the principle of non-interference in the domestic affairs of member states, a principle that pretty much cancels out its other high sounding principles including that of human rights. When the secretary general of ASEAN was asked whether the new charter will allow human rights abuses to continue in Burma, he answered as follows: "There are times and opportunities for this issue to be addressed". Translation: "Yes".

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Students of English need to hear all accents, Postbag, July 8, 2008

Once at an airport in Texas I found myself helping a woman who had lost her lion's cape and only when she found it did I know that it was the lens cap for her camera. English comes in a wide variety of accents that are easily understood by a large cross section of English speakers and I feel that it would be wrong to hold out some of these as more correct than the others. Yet, there are some extreme cases in which the accent interferes with the ability to communicate clearly. All foreign PhD students in the USA who lecture in undergraduate school are required to pass a test called the TSE. The only purpose of the test is to ensure that the lecture will be understood by the students. Thailand could adopt a similar measure as long as it is neutral and unbiased with respect to the various universally understood versions of the language.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: A new breed of tinkerers mix science and craft, Bangkok Post, July 8, 2008

In the 1950s, thrill seekers in Southern California welded together a crude frame from steel tubing, mounted it on wheels from wheel barrows, powered the contraption with a lawn mower engine, raced it around the parking lot of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, and accidentally gave birth to the worldwide go-kart industry. In the same vein, about twenty years later goofy thrill seekers tinkered with their bicycles so that they could hurtle down Mount Tamalpais in Northern California faster and faster. We now know their product as the ubiquitous mountain bike. American tinkerers gave us more than just the personal computer. An entire book could be written of their contribution to the world as we know it today. Their unique characteristic is that their products become success stories only by accident and never by intent.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: August moon rising over nervous Beijing, Bangkok Post, July 7, 2008

It is unfair for the West to point fingers at China with respect to its paranoia and heightened security measures ahead of the Olympics on which the nation has pinned its rising star (August moon rising over nervous Beijing, Bangkok Post, July 7, 2008). All the allegations of stifling security and eroded civil liberties in Beijing, though true, pale in comparison with the paranoia displayed by the West as soon as it felt threatened by terrorism. If you have been through an American airport lately you will find Beijing to be a walk in the park.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: House sites narrowed down to two, Bangkok Post, July 5, 2008

Ten sites were proposed for Thailand's new Parliament building and and two of these sites have been selected for final deliberation entirely on rational grounds (House sites narrowed down to two, Bangkok Post, July 5, 2008). Not only that, the two sites still under consideration are being compared strictly on the basis of cost, benefit, logistics, and utility. Incredibly, the entire selection process has proceeded with reason and pragmatism and without the use of astrology, feng shui, fortune tellers, black magic, or voodoo. The nation and the government deserve credit for this singular achievement.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Temple has north-south orientation, Bangkok Post, July 6, 2008

I fear that free discourse on Preah Vihear may be stifled by the snobbish notion expressed in Postbag (Temple has north-south orientation, Postbag, July 6, 2008) that the temple issue is too complex for the average citizen to comprehend, that opinions of the public are therefore misleading and dangerous, and that further discussion on this topic should be left to the elite few who know it all. As a footnote, elitism also holds that democracy is dangerous because most voters are too dumb to understand the issues.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

All quiet on the Western front, July 2008

Often there is more information in what is not making news than in the stuff that is. The global warming hype that had reached a fever pitch with Al Gore's movie called the Inconvenient Truth and with Hurricane Katrina that the global warmists were sure was nature's revenge for SUVs, has gone eerily quiet. There's more news in their silence than in the convenient lies about the evils of carbon dioxide that they had tried to foist upon us. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Thailand to become biggest tractor market for Kubota, Bangkok Post, July 5, 2008

Last month the Bangkok Post reported that the high cost of fuel was driving Thai farmers to abandon farm machinery and to go back to water buffaloes to till their land. This month it says that rising farm prices are driving Thai farmers to buy more tractors than ever before (Thailand to become biggest tractor market for Kubota, Bangkok Post, July 5, 2008). It should be noted that oil prices have gone up and rice prices have fallen over the last month. Perhaps the water buffalo story was anecdotal and not indicative of a national trend.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Chanthaburi residents face cancer risk, Bangkok Post, July 2, 2008

It is reported that 21 of a sample of 469 urine samples collected near the Map Ta Phut industrial area in Thailand showed excessive exposure to benzene (Chanthaburi residents face cancer risk, Bangkok Post, July 2, 2008). The report concludes that the petrochemical industries located at the industrial area are exposing people in adjacent communities to cancer. This conclusion does not follow from the data provided. Data from a control group are necessary for the purpose of comparison. Only if the ratio of 21 to 469 is significantly higher than that of the control group could one blame the proximity of the industrial area for exposure to benzene particularly because exposure to benzene is epidemic in Thailand. Many Thais pour petrol from old whiskey bottles into their motorcycle or sleep in a cloud of gasoline fumes when they bring their motorcycle into their home at night. They appear to have no aversion to contact with gasoline, a substance known to contain benzene.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand