[Tlc] T-social policy

[justinm at ucr.edu]

Forwarded from Al Valentine. Link to article and commentary below.
Thanks,
justin


http://www.bangkokpost.com/181208_News/18Dec2008_news19.php

Message in a bottle
Theerawut Sathitphattarakul and Krissana Parnsoonthorn penned an absolutely mind-blowing article (Bangkok Post, Dec 17). I mean staggering beyond belief. Indeed, I am still in a state of shock as I write.

According to them, there is a new law in Thailand _ if you sell alcohol in a gift basket you go to prison for six months. Six months! Let me spell this out to you. If you sell gift baskets for the holiday season, which is a time to make merry and party you will face six months in a stinking hole _ crushed together with all kinds of major offenders for a decision made by a shopper in your shop! They say it's because the shop would be forcing people to buy alcohol. Are you kidding? Are the law makers of this country insane? What is sold in a basket can be bought separately _ thus people have a choice.

You can instigate the murder of over 2500 Thais and order it to be carried out as your express policy and nobody will even dream of bringing you to book for allowing the 'right to be human' taken away from those you ordered to be executed! You can actually pull the trigger and kill those unfortunate Thais denied the minimum of justice and murder them with your own hand in cold blood and on both counts you are not held accountable for your actions in anyway! You can send truck after truck packed with Thai men stacked up on top of each other, do this all day long knowing that not all of them will get out alive and nobody really cares! You won't be investigated or tried by a court! You can throw a hissy fit like a kid whose had his sweeties taken from him and drive your Benz into a crowd of innocent Thais and kill one of them and still be allowed to walk (and continue driving) free to do it again (and he did)! Oh, in Thailand the list just goes on and on! You can kill thousands a!
!
 year on the road by careless driving or failing to follow the rules of the road and you don't have to to go to jail! You can ride your motorbike with three or four people aboard, none wearing a crash helmet and totally disobeying the rules of the road as you ride and all you have to pay is a hundred baht or so! The fact that you could be responsible for the death of all of your passengers and others caught up in your dangerous driving means nothing out here! That's without even touching on the pandemic corruption and the knock on effect of that! Yet you face six months in the slammer for selling a gift basket which includes alcohol!

If you think that's amazing, try this. If you designate a corner of your shop to displaying the variety of alcohol sold and consumed by Thais and holiday makers in Thailand - you face one whole year in prison!!

It's not April 1st is it?

Democrats _ you have a lot to do to sort this sorry mess out! Good luck.


FAST EDDY 

______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
3046 INTN
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu