Identity crisis

Re: "'Thainess' not all bad", (PostBag, July 30).

If Thais coming together to help flood-ravaged Laos is another demonstration of "Thainess", does that mean all the foreigners that came to Thailand to help in the cave rescue were also demonstrating "Thainess" -- or is it only a national characteristic when done by Thais?

bkkguy
Bankrupt in Bangkok

Re: "City Living Costs", (Asia Focus, July 30).

Am I missing something to read that the rankings of cost of living for expats in Bangkok (52nd) are far higher than Melbourne (58th), Perth (61st), Brisbane (84th) and Kuala Lumpur (145th)?

Songdej Praditsmanont
Migrants work harder

Re: "Playing the 'racist' card", (PostBag, July 30).

Peter Atkinson's defence of Barry Wallace and the like-minded against the charge that their attitudes are racist is doubtless sincere, as are the attitudes themselves.

To avoid the charge of racist prejudice prompting such accusations, they would have to be backed up by facts. The relevant facts are the statistics comparing Australian-born citizens with immigrants and their children, which show Barry and his sincerely likeminded mates to be wrong. First, immigrants to Australia have higher education levels than the Australian born, with 9.2% having a postgraduate degree compared to only 4.8% for the Aussie-born. More tellingly, the children of migrants have consistently higher educational expectations than those of home-born Australians: 60% of the children of migrants complete at least year 12, compared with only 53% of the children of parents born in Australia. Almost 50% of the children of migrants complete at least a bachelor's degree, compared to a low 36% for those with both parents born in Australia. These are not the statistics for a group who "only come to get money from the government".

Naturally, this high motivation to build a better life for themselves and their children is reflected in their substantial contributions to the Australian economy and to Australian society more generally.

Although racial prejudice certainly continues to exist in Australia, with 27% of Australian citizens having experienced personal abuse or discrimination "because of their ethnicity", 86.8% of Australians think it "a good thing for a society to be made up of people from different cultures".

Felix Qui
Glass houses

In his attempt to smear others as being racist, it seems that Peter Atkinson in his July 30 letter is guilty of the same thing when he bitterly complains that he has gone from being a majority white, British, to a minority.

He uses the old race card by referring to some immigrants as being illiterate and uneducated with no work skills, etc. I guess Peter lives in Thailand and has not benefited from medical treatment in the UK, whose National Health Service is largely staffed by those he sees as being "immigrants who are illiterate and uneducated with no work skills". Get over it, Peter.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black (no pun intended)!

Martin R
Lexical intermingling

Re: "Thai language in dire state, says poll," (BP, July 29).

A Dusit Poll finds that "most people believe the country's language is in a catastrophic state", with the language contaminated by jargon and borrowings from foreign languages.

To use an Australian colloquial vulgarism, you are "paddling a barbed wire canoe up s**t creek" if you think you can stop the further development (corruption?) of the Thai language.

Languages, all languages, change over the years with borrowings or loan words from other languages, and science, technology and other influences are constantly adding newly invented words to the lexicon.

English is a prime example. For more than a thousand years it has borrowed words from Latin, Greek, French, German, Hindi, and countless other languages. Just read a few paragraphs of Chaucer (14th century), Shakespeare (16th century) or Emily Bronte (19th century), and compare the writings with modern English.

Thai is no different, and has been borrowing words from foreign languages for hundreds of years, including from Sanskrit, Persian, English, Arabic, Hokkien, French and Chinese.

The French set up the Academie Francaise to protect the "purity" of their language but it has failed dismally because words and ideas cannot be stopped from crossing national borders.

David BrownRayong

Contact: Bangkok Post Building 136 Na Ranong Road Klong Toey, Bangkok 10110 fax: +02 6164000 Email:

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