Stop Legal Casinos

The new government in Thailand wants to make casinos to be legal in Thailand because it is argued to be good for the economy. However, there is further proof with numerous social problems as well. The legal casinos will cause more people to be in debt. People who never gambled will think that it is now legal, so they should try once. After that, people will find it is hard to stop gambling then need more and more money to gamble. From ABAC poll, the survey of 2726 people, 54.6% of them said no to the legal casinos. The result is clearly confirmed that most people disagree with the government’s decision because it will make Thai people face the bad consequences of gambling. The effects on gamblers, their family, and Thai society are the main reasons why the Thai government should not legalize casinos.

Initially, gambling causes gamblers to get bad results. They spend a lot of or all of their money to gamble instead of saving money for more important things such as health and medical insurance, and many people will end up with mass debts, which cause many people to commit suicide because they feel so depressed and cannot find the way out. Moreover, gambling obstructs gamblers’ career growth. Gambling addicts will spend less time at work that causes their performances drop and end up fire from their jobs. In stead of doing good jobs, the government will encourage people in Thailand to be unemployed, go deeply into the unpredictable gambling, and make people to rely on their luck to be wealthy instead of doing hard work. In addition, young people who like to gamble might skip classes to go gambling that causes their school grades to drop or do not want to go to schools forever. It is the serious problem because young people are the important powers to develop the country in the future. From a survey of 1,700 students from six different colleges and universities in England, 33% of males and 15% of females in college gamble at least once a week. In addition, gambling can cause people to have bad mental health. Their self-esteem and mood depend on the results of gambling. If they win, they will be happy. It they lose, they will have bad mood and feel stressed that can also cause gamblers to have bad physical health.
Secondly, gambling causes people to destroy their own family. Gambling addicts only pay attention on gambling and spend most of their time at casinos, ignoring their family. They do not be interested in their children’s problems and care that their behavior is ruining their family’s life. These behaviors will cause more people to divorce, which can make their children to have sadness in their mind and might become social problems. In addition, when gamblers do not have enough money to bet, they argue and hurt their family. For example, a husband needs money to gamble, but his wife refuse to give him because she wants to keep this amount of money for her children’s education. Therefore, the husband hits and hurts his wife in forcing her to give him money. In addition, students who are gambling addicts might steal money from their parents, and this behavior make these young people to be a theft in the future.
Lastly, gambling causes Thailand to have more social problems. When people do not have enough money to gamble or pay debts, they end up with silly decisions, illegal acts. Some of them decide to steal others’ property. According to a 1990 Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene survey, nearly 400 members of Gambler’s Anonymous showed that 57 percent admitted stealing to finance their gambling. Moreover, the amounts are not small. On average they stole $135,000, and total theft was over $30 million. Moreover, some of them might become criminals and rapists that cause many following problems for Thai society. In addition, most people in Thailand are Buddhists. Legalizing casinos encourages people to break religious rules, and it means that Thai people deteriorate their own religion.
In conclusion, the Thai government should think further about the following problems of gambling that Thai people will face in the future. Making casinos legal in Thailand is not a good decision to do because there are other ways to help develop the economy in the country. Thailand can have a good economic development if the government administrates their works very well, not to legalize casinos.

The Different Solutions between Japan and Singapore

Japan and Singapore are two of the most well-known countries in Asia. As the reputation of these two countries, there are various nationalities of people who come and invest in these countries. As a result, pollution is an inevitable problem to people because the faster the industrial growth increases, the higher the pollution people get. The main factors that cause pollution are generally automobiles, power plants, and factories. Although Japan and Singapore are dissimilar in terms of solving air pollution and noise pollution, but they share one major similarity which is the solutions for water pollution.
The first noticeable difference in solving air pollution between Japan and Singapore is the way they solve the problem. Japan is clearly seen that the government will tend to concentrate mainly on stationary sources. Firstly, the Japanese government starts to control emission standards for factories. To begin with, factories, power plants, and incinerators are enforced to set up smokestack scrubbers, electrostatic precipitators, and other filters in order to reduce the amount of pollution released into the atmosphere. In addition, factories will be given penalties if they do not follow the rules or fail with air quality standards. At the same time, the Japanese government will use energy sources and various types of transportation engines which are empowered by electricity and steam. Moreover, they will also get rid of fossil fuels and the internal-combustion engines which are the main factors of causing air pollution (Solutions to Air Pollution, 2007). On the other hand, Singapore’s solutions are completely different from Japan as the government of Singapore focuses directly on urban traffic congestion due to its rapid industrial growth. To decline this problem, the government of Singapore has got four new policies. Firstly, people who want to purchase motor vehicles have to pay higher taxes. Secondly, public transportation will be modernized in order to encourage its use. Thirdly, the Singapore’s roads will be enhanced. Finally, an area licensing policy will be entered to force. The details in the policy are mentioned that only cars showing a license are allowed to pass the central business districts from 7.30 a.m. to 10.30 a.m. However, buses, service vehicles, carpools with four or more people, and taxes will not be included (Air Pollution/Transportation, n.d.). As a result, vehicles causing air pollution will be reduced. As you can see, Japan will mostly control air pollution by regulating emission of stationary sources and using energy sources, whereas in Singapore, the government tends to alleviate urban traffic congestion.
Solving noise pollution is the second remarkable difference between Japan and Singapore. Japan has continuously faced an increasing number of vehicles, and mufflers of some vehicles are changed, so this will lead to noise pollution. As the fact above, the Japanese government has set three motor vehicle noise regulations which are accelerated running, steady running, and exhaust proximity. Firstly, for passenger cars with no more than ten people, accelerated running has to be 76 dB, steady running has to be 72 dB, and exhaust proximity has to be 96 dB. Secondly, for motorcycles, accelerated running has to be 73 dB, steady running has to be 72 dB, and exhaust proximity has to be 94 dB (Tightening of Measures Against Motor Vehicle Exhaust Noise Pollution in Japan, 2007). However, the solutions of Singapore are totally different from the solutions of Japan. Due to the development of technology and urbanization in Singapore, the main factors of causing noise pollution are normally vehicular traffic, the mass rail transit system (MRT), and the light rail transit system (LRT). In order to manage this problem, the Singapore government has four policies. Firstly, the government will construct buildings as obstacles between expressways and residents to minimze noise levels (Commuting sustainably, nd.). Secondly, the government will limit noise emission standards for vehicles. For example, a noise emission standard for the MRT trains is 86 dB at a speed of 80 km/h (Environment, Energy, and Resources, 2003). Thirdly, Singapore’s expressways will be constructed by using porous asphalt. Finally, the MRT trains will use noise-damped rail tracks and wheels while the LRT trains will be set up rubber wheels, and both of them will be operated on concrete tracks (Commuting sustainably, nd.). As you can see, the ways Japan and Singapore solve noise pollution are entirely different.
However, both Japan and Singapore share one similarity in solving water pollution. Japan has suffered polluted rivers due to its rapid industrail growth. Therefore, the government decides to build water catchment for water supply. In addition, the government prescribes every factories to use and store chemicals away from water catchment areas in order to prevent chemicals to blend in the water. Like Japan, the solution of Singapore is to build water catchment. Polluted rivers are the main problem that Singapore has been facing for a long time because of various commercial, industrial, hawking, and farming activities. To handle this problem, the government of Singapore will firstly build sewerage systems in order to collect rainwater. Also, these systems can also prevent water from being contaminated by dangerous and deleterious chemicals. Secondly, rainwater will be gathered and sent to drains, canals, and 14 reservoirs including others in the urban and built-up areas for consumption. As a result, there is approximately half of Singapore where it is currently water catchment (Singapore International Water Week, 2007). As you can see, with regard to water catchment, the solutions of Japan and Singapore are quite similar.
In conclusion, although Japan and Singapore are different in terms of solving air pllution and noise pollution, they share one major similarity in terms of solving water pollution. However, both Japan and Singapore provide a lot of benefits to all their residents, so I think that the solutions of both countries are suitable for Thailand if our country adapts and uses systematically.

A Life Lesson

It started when my father was eighteen years old. He had just graduated from a well-known high school, and he became a university student. When he stepped into the university, he felt very excited because everything was new. He did not know anybody because his friends had studied at the different university.
When he attended his first class which was mathematics, he chose to sit in front of the room. He wanted to focus directly on what teacher taught because he knew that studying at university would be more difficult than studying at high school. In the class, he made friends with the person who sat beside him. “Hello, what is your name?” my father said. “My name is Somchai, and you?” he replied. “My name is Pui” my father answered. My father was a person who found it easy to get along well with other people in a very short time, so he and Somchai had a good relationship together and became very close easily.
On the next day, Somchai brought his new friend whose name is Vorapop to introduce to my father. “Sawaddee Kub! My nickname is Pom” Vorapop said. Somchai told my father that his friend came from Phuket; so remarkably, his accent would not be clear and similar to Bangkok citizens. He was extremely short like a dwarf and had curly short hair. His eyebrows were very thick, and his lips looked very tough. He had a big nose as well as his eyes, and all of these made him look like a bull.
Because of his hideous appearance, other people seemed to avoid being near him. Therefore, he barely had friends. Anyway, he tried to made friends, but no one wanted to talk to him.
When Pom was studying in the class, most of the students tried to pick on him all the time. Some students threw rubbish to his head when the teacher turned his face to the blackboard. Some people wrote rude phrases on the paper and pasted at his back such as “Kick for free!”, “Am I handsome?”, and “I am gay!” Sometimes, he was badly threatened for money, and if he did not give it, he would get hurt. It could be said that, to us, he was merely a joker of the room at that time.
Not only was he picked on so hard in the class, but he was also teased outside the class. When he had lunch, he did not have any accompanies to enjoy the meal with. He was always left out to eat alone. As a result, when he had problems, he was unable to consult with anybody because his existence meant nothing to other students; no one would be caring if he was alive or not.
One day during the trimester, my father had to attend football club after finishing his mathematics class at 5 o’ clock, so he had to go home late. Unfortunately, after finishing his club, it was around 8 o’ clock. He realized that he forgot his car keys, and he did not know exactly where it was. He tried to find it everywhere. Finally, he found it in the locker of football club. When he stepped out of the room, he found that no one was there, so he drove back home alone.
At that time, there was a heavy rain, and he was away from the university around three kilometers. Suddenly, my father’s car was stopped, and he thought that the fuel was run out. Also, there was no gas station around there, so he did not know how to revive his car into life.
During that time, there were no cell phones, so it was quite difficult to contact other people when help is needed. While heavy rain was falling, there was nobody around there. It was around 10 o’ clock as he took a look at my watch and thought that his parents had to be so worried because he did not arrive at home. The only thing that he could do was just to wait for the rain to stop or, if he was lucky enough, help would come to him very soon.
Surprisingly, he was not yet short of luck because, thirty minutes later, there was a man who walked along this way with a pale red hundred-year-old-like umbrella in his hand. That man seemed short and very as similar as the joker in his class. “It is him.” He said while the rain was still washing the earth.
“Can I help?” Pom asked me if he could be any help. “Yes, my car was suddenly dead, and I do not know what to do.” My father replied. My father was wondering if it would be Pom’s payback time or not. Suddenly he answered “Well, let me see your car engine.” So, I walked to my car and showed him a car engine. “Oh man! It is just overheating, but actually you just need it to be cooled down, and your car will come to life again soon.” After that, he just walked away without hearing my father’s “Thank you”. So he stayed silent and said nothing but “Thank you” was echoing in his mind.
On the day later, my father hurried to come to the university. He told the entire story that he had met last night with his friends. “Really” some of the students replied. From now on, Pom who had ever been lonely now got a lot of friends. He had a good relationship with my father as well as the other students.
My father learned from this experience that sometimes the person who you expect to kick will be the one to help you get back. He taught me that I should look beyond the appearance.