Thai MPs?

Last week, I saw the news on TV about an anonymous MP was caught by a photographer while he is watching a porn image on his mobile phone during the parliamentary meeting. Later, one of MPs from the democrat party had admitted that he was the person on the picture. Some members of the opposite party try to push him to resign as the MP but he said that it was his friend who sent a message to him, and he just only open and try to delete it. He will not resign anyway.

(Photo from www.manager.co.th)

My point is I’m so disappointed after watching the news. I never thought this would happen in such a place like that. What happen to Thai MPs today? We vote them to work for us and  the parliament is a place where they work , isn't it?  It’s really inappropriate to do that during working hours. In this case, he’d better watch it outside or other places. A thing that he does really destroy the parliament's image. Besides, there’re also other MPs who seem not to care about meetings. Here are some example pictures from www.manager.co.th.

From the pictures above, some is sleeping . Some act chill while they are talking on the phone during meetings. Are these the people that we vote for? How can we trust them to develop our country when they act like this?

On the ground lottery

On the Ground Lottery

            My dad called me on the evening of the 1^st of April and excitedly told me that my mom just won the illegal lottery (in other word called “underground lottery”). She got quite a lot of money. First, I was thinking; oh! that’s great! I don’t have to send them money this monthJ. Later, I was wondering where did my mom get lucky those numbers from so I asked my dad, then he began to tell me about the situation of the underground lottery in my hometown. The day before the lottery day which is on the 1^st and the 16^th of every month, people will go crazy about finding lucky numbers and their hope is the trees!! They will go to the trees that are big enough and look magical enough so that the spirits can stay and then they offer the spirits some local chew gum (betel nut with some kinds of Thai herb) which the spirits like the most, I think, begin to prey and make a wish. After that, they will use powder (any powder) scatter on the trees (the tree skins).  The most important process comes, they will scratch on the tree skins (the area that they just scattered powder on) and hope that some numbers will come up, my mom and my dad were the ones in the spirits lottery worship or whatever they called.

            This happens every time on the day before the lottery day. It drives me to think about the Government policy that they are going to push back the policy of “on the ground lottery”. Many people argue that it is not a good idea because it’s going to lead people to be in dept. Some people think that the government is going to use this policy as a tool to get money from the “on the ground lottery”. On the other hand, the lottery has always been with Thai people’s life since the Ayutthaya age. In my opinion, it is a good idea to push the underground lottery to be “on the ground”; since buying lottery makes people happy, the government should make their people happy by making it legal. I am not supporting this policy because my parents are the fan of lottery but I think the government can get the profit from “on the ground lottery project” to develop the country.

 Jenjira Pukan 540132004