How to improve quality of life in Thailand A.

Improvements That Wouldn't Cost a Satang

Discourage loud music on city streets. Discontinue amplified radio bulletins throughout towns, and end roving trucks with amplified advertisements. Develop nonloud areas within buses, shops, restaurants and malls. Suggest: proprietors turn down stereos, or at least have their loudspeakers face one corner of store or bus space. That way, people who want loud sounds can congregate in front of the speakers. Patrons who prefer moderate noise levels can sit in relatively quieter sections. A 'no noise' section is not a realistic option. More about noise pollution. Cite dangerous drivers, and those with vehicles that are too loud or emit too much exhaust. In my town, an average of one driver goes thru a red light at each light change that's thousands per day. Yet I've never seen any driver pulled over by police for running a red light. Declare trees with a chest-height trunk circumference greater than 40 cm as public domain. Fine anyone cutting such trees without a permit. Educate farmers about the attributes of using clippings and rice hulls for mulch and composting rather than for burning. Encourage greater participation by girls in sports. Currently, 92% of sport activities are boys only. Designate additional islands and coral reefs for protection. Have patrols enforce strict litter rules. Take it a step further and mandate that no internal combustion engines be allowed within a kilometer of shore lines. Create an understanding that natural environments have more value in their natural state than as a source of raw materials. Don't allow anyone to walk upon the coral (note: rubber flippers do not lessen the harm of walking on live coral). Improve school curriculums to foster innovative thinking. Lower exorbitant import duties - some reports tell of demands for 200% of retail value - even for second hand items. . Discourage illegal garbage dumping and burying. Outlaw burning of plastic trash. Impress upon the public the desirability of putting trash in bins, especially in regard to outdoor events. Discourage excessive plastic packaging and bagging. Currently, every item that can be purchased in Thailand is bagged in plastic. Make people that it's ok to decline redundant plastic bagging of purchased items. It's even ok to take coverings off of newly purchased items - right at the place of purchase. If retailers were to get inundated with piles of plastic and cardboard at their check-out counters - it would have a

ripple effect on up to manufacturers - perhaps getting them to be a tad more responsible with their packaging decisions. Encourage responsibility by men who abandon their children. Demand decent support payments by deadbeat dads be sent to whomever is taking care of the children. Suggest: minimum Bt.5,000 per month. . Revamp the Immigration Department's visa regulations for foreigners who who choose to reside in Thailand. Thirty day visas are the most commonly available duration, and that's fine for tourists and short-term visitors. However there are other foreigners who choose to stay for longer durations. Many are retired folk, yet many are also active as teachers and NGO volunteers. Collectively, they bring in billions of baht of outside money - that trickles throughout the Thai economy. Most of those hundreds of thousands of foreigners are compelled to travel to an international border every month to renew their visas. Besides being immensely inconvenient, it can feel a bit like being a paroled convict having to re-register with State authorities every 30 days. Demand responsibility and transparency by politicians and others in positions of authority. Let them know that continually making excuses for wrongdoings is not only immature & illegal, it also sets a bad example for everyone else - especially young Thais. Currently, video stores offer movies in the following genres: violence, romance, horror, sex, fiction, esoteric pap, comedy, and more violence. There no options for people who may want to watch a non-fiction film, or one about real history, true biography, science or nature. Video shops chould be required, as a community responsibility, to have a decent percentage of choices be Discovery Channel-type documentaries. Educate people on the benefits of organic produce over produce that may look prettier - but is not as healthy. A stroll down any suburban street in Thailand is a walk between walls. Similarly, every rural property is either walled in or fenced with barbed wire. On that same theme, nearly all ground floor commercial buildings are wrapped in gray metal from evening to morning. Rare is a house with windows that are not curtained or shuttered. Is there some sort of cultural imperative that insists that every house, every property, every shop must have manifold layers of physical barriers? In contrast, Holland has houses and shops with uncovered windows. Similarly, few houses in America have walls erected around them - allowing lawns to roll down to sidewalks - thereby affording a more spacious and non-forbidding feeling in the nieghborhood. If some bad people want to attack a house, they're not going to be much hindered by a wall or fence. Let's see some bulletin boards and classified ad sections in newspapers and such things that enable people to interact. Currently, everything happens on a 'word-of-mouth' basis - and that's ok, but community interaction on that level is rare. Similarly, there are scant few second-hand shops - which is a reflection of Asians' disdain for used items, a

silly notion that's fueled by retailers' rapacious yun to sell only new things. Further proof is the fact that you'll rarely, if ever, see a yard sale or garage sale in Thailand. So too, flea markets don't exist in Thailand - in the sense of recycled or used items. Responsibility for pets - particularly restraining agressive dogs.

B. Improvements That Would Require a Modest Amount of Investment

Encourage building owners to re-paint their buildings with mildew-resistant paints, preferably a non-toxic type. There is such a thing as mildewcide additive for paint - but it's not available in Thailand. Encourage building owners to install gutters/drip molding that would lessen the eye-sore impact of black mildew that grows on the sides of nearly all buildings. Develop and implement ways to lessen loud noise from unhoused motors used by boats that ply all of Thailand's navigable waterways. Create a 'Youth Conservation Corps' with the purpose of developing a greater awareness of environmental husbandry. Re-introduce indigenous species of animals and plants to select rural regions. Designate more protected forests. Discourage people from killing birds and other wild animals for food or sport. Develop ways to cover and hide the endless stretches of black wires that run along every road and alongside nearly every building. Some suggestions; (a) conduit, (b) underground, (c) inside or behind walls, (d) paint wires to match wall colors. Create a government department with the authority to assign "Heritage Village" designation. Select a few villages nationwide to be re-configured to showcase a certain historical time in the past. That village would therefore become infused with cultural significance and be like a living museum. Designated parking would be no closer than two kilometers away - no exceptions for tourist buses, delivery trucks, motorcycles, or any wheeled vehicles that don't fit with the program. No electric, nor phones, nor computers allowed. Besides tourist income, the villagers' quality of life would change not in the least by having banished internal combustion engines and loudspeakers. Create "Heritage Tree" designations. This would entail an organization that compiles a list of the largest trees of a particular species in the kingdom - and a similar list for each province. This would not only contribute to an increased appreciation and preservation of trees, but also add tourist appeal to certain regions.

C. Improvements That Would Take Serious Planning & Investment

Relocate government offices, currently all stuffed in Bangkok, to one or more outlying regions. Same for universities, military bases, businesses, industries. Continue to develop mass transit. Upgrade buses, and lessen the number of taxis in Bangkok. Currently, about 75% of the thousands of Bangkok taxis drive around with no passengers - contributing mightily to gridlock and smog. Encourage innovative thinkers to develop alternative power devices. Suggestions: battery powered motorcycles, wind-up air fans, solar pre-heat for hot-water, and designs for passive cooling in buildings. Patent possibilities abound. Install sewers and water treatment plants where needed. Place grates over 'vehicle trap' water gullies that line some streets. Those straight-walled cement ditches are usually deep and often just wider than a vehicle's tire - perfect size for disabling a vehicle. Similarly, redesign metal grates currently used to cover storm drains. They're often perfectly sized & aligned to wreck bicycle wheels. Create more parks and playgrounds. There is much fallow land in Thai cities and towns. Give the kids some more places to play! Build 'park and ride' multi-level parking lots around the perimeter of Bangkok. These could serve as hubs for mass-transit into the city. Develop greater awareness and purchase-incentives for renewable power resources, especially solar. Currently, there is only one company in Thailand that sells PV panels (BP) - and their prices are twice what the same components sell for in western countries. Develop a 'Rapid Deployment Force' (in fact, not just in name) that would be ready within hours to deal dynamically with regional trouble spots. An effective RDF would also have medical and disaster relief capacity.