Thai PM Steps Up Control: Flood Crisis

[hammered]

You seem very unhappy with any of the focus turning from how this happened (surely a discussion that can wait until after it is all over), to how it is being managed. As i said to one of your kindred spirits, i can of course appreciate why you are so keen to divert attention.

Actually you are wrong on this.I welcome discussion of how this crisis has been managed.I do dislike bile and hatred for political point scoring purposes when the country is facing a major crisis.

To be fair, re-reading my last post, I could be interpreted as including you in that grisly little band.That would be incorrect and I apologise for that.

On a different tack I see the Bangkok mayor is receiving a lot of praise from some members.I think the jury is still out on whether that is deserved.On this and on much else, as you suggest, there needs to be a discussion later on.

Outside of BKK the main question has been why wewrent the gates opened to let tyhe water flow away? That may be niave but is going to later be a poltical question. Of coruse the BKK governors priority was to protect BKK by keeping gates closed. How you see things likley depends on what sideof the barriers you are and from what I see opinion of Sukhumband outside BKK is quite low across poltical lines. In BKK it is likley quite high across poltical lines.

Similar with Yingluck. Those in BKK think she is more likely to flood the place while those outside see her as more likley to to release the water. Criticisms of her outside are more about why wait so long to take overall control.

Oddly enough as Thitinan noted in the Guardian yeaterday BKK taking a flooding will likely lessen the potential for regional and poor-rich hatred in the aftermath of all this. The recenlty released opinion polls that showed a massive difference in opinion on government performance between BKK based polls (under 4/10) and all flooded areas polls (over 8/10) also show the divide isnt going away and that it is likely that in a divided society blame will be attached to those not liked.

Still for now everyone should get ebhind those in control of the water management and hope they can perform. The time for the inevitable repurcussions and acusations and political games comes later.

[rubl]

Outside of BKK the main question has been why wewrent the gates opened to let tyhe water flow away? That may be niave but is going to later be a poltical question. Of coruse the BKK governors priority was to protect BKK by keeping gates closed. How you see things likley depends on what sideof the barriers you are and from what I see opinion of Sukhumband outside BKK is quite low across poltical lines. In BKK it is likley quite high across poltical lines.

Similar with Yingluck. Those in BKK think she is more likely to flood the place while those outside see her as more likley to to release the water. Criticisms of her outside are more about why wait so long to take overall control.

Oddly enough as Thitinan noted in the Guardian yeaterday BKK taking a flooding will likely lessen the potential for regional and poor-rich hatred in the aftermath of all this. The recenlty released opinion polls that showed a massive difference in opinion on government performance between BKK based polls (under 4/10) and all flooded areas polls (over 8/10) also show the divide isnt going away and that it is likely that in a divided society blame will be attached to those not liked.

Still for now everyone should get ebhind those in control of the water management and hope they can perform. The time for the inevitable repurcussions and acusations and political games comes later.

Difficult indeed. Mind you with 12 million people living in Greater Bangkok and depending on an urban infrastructure keeping a larger part dry makes sense. It may favour some of the Bangkok Elite, but those form a less than 1% part of Bankokians. The 12 millions are mostly lower to middle class with family upcountry.

Anyway, water is coming, Sam Sen Rd. two blocks away from my neck of the woods.

[rogerdee123]

Actually you are wrong on this.I welcome discussion of how this crisis has been managed.I do dislike bile and hatred for political point scoring purposes when the country is facing a major crisis.

Problem of course being, that one man's reasoned and well justified criticism of government action, or inaction as the case may be, may well be another man's bile and hatred for political point scoring purposes. Personally, my feeling is, were people trying to blame Yingluck for the flood itself, that would be daft and fall into the category you mention. But i haven't seen any of that. What i have seen is criticism of how information is being given to the public, how flood water is managed, and how relief is organised. Now to me, all those areas have been dealt with poorly, and deserve due criticism.

On a different tack I see the Bangkok mayor is receiving a lot of praise from some members.I think the jury is still out on whether that is deserved.On this and on much else, as you suggest, there needs to be a discussion later on.

I think what impressed some people about the Bangkok mayor, was that whether or not he was making the right decisions, he was seen to be making them, and making them decisively. After all the dithering and jumping from one contradicting statement to the next, it was refreshing. That's all. Let's just say, the bar had been set low enough, that it didn't take much for someone to leap above it.

I must say that I am not a Bangkokian .... although I have been previously and have served my time there ... however from all the leaders and television personalities I have seen so far during this crisis I think I would feel safer knowing Khun Sukhambhand (rather than the others including Mdm Poo) was responsible for me and my address. Granted I would still probably have difficulty sleeping. But he is the best of the lot I have seen so far.

Edited October 22, 2011 by rogerdee123

[Gonsalviz]

The flood early this year in the USA were also not controllable and many areas were sacrificed in order to save ore lucrative areas. I saw some of this. It was amazingly huge flooding.

Thailand is a small country. Why is it that some posters have nothing to say but negative comments, especially figuring that most have nothing approaching a degree in civil engineering.

I will have to admit there have been some silly ideas, ie. the 1,000 boats but I really think by and large it is something that was unpreventable. The earth has out done mankind again and no matter what we do, it will continue to overwhelm us.

These floods are unprecedented for 50 years. i have been coming to Thailand for 35 years and have seen some major floods. This is more.

[rogerdee123]

The flood early this year in the USA were also not controllable and many areas were sacrificed in order to save ore lucrative areas. I saw some of this. It was amazingly huge flooding.

Thailand is a small country. Why is it that some posters have nothing to say but negative comments, especially figuring that most have nothing approaching a degree in civil engineering.

I will have to admit there have been some silly ideas, ie. the 1,000 boats but I really think by and large it is something that was unpreventable. The earth has out done mankind again and no matter what we do, it will continue to overwhelm us.

These floods are unprecedented for 50 years. i have been coming to Thailand for 35 years and have seen some major floods. This is more.

In most disaster situations (that are intelligently managed) it's not about saving lucrative areas, it's about saving people and saving the densely populated areas. It's common sense that providing relief to large numbers of people is more difficult than providing relief to small numbers of people.

It's also human nature for the people who are affected to complain if they think other people aren't being affected equally. However it falls upon the "leadership" to make the correct decisions to minimize the risks to as many people as they can, and then clearly explain (in an understandable way) why they made those decisions.