To confront or not to confront...

Oooh… what’s happening to Southern Thailand? In the three times my missus and I visited the area, we always came away feeling quite peaceful and relaxed. That place is (or was) so serene and beautiful. What more, on a trip to Pak Bara on the western shores, I communicated with the local people in my Kedah Malay dialect. There was a certain amount of affinity that I felt with the locals there.

But really, I wonder what can or should the Thai government do in such a volatile situation. One thing for sure is to expect more fireworks. Southern Thailand or Thailand so to say, will probably never be the same “Land of the Thousand Smiles” again. As they say, it is so difficult to build a good reputation but it takes just as much as a spark to mess it all up.

On another front, it is quiet heartening to read about two Americans who chose not to fight it out. Kevin Rice and his wife Jeanine Pfeiffer are victims of that fateful Singapore Airlines Taipei crash on October 31, 2000. Singapore’s Straits Times reported that four years after that disaster, about 90 lawsuits were filed. Lloyd's estimated that the total insurance payout so far is about $290 million.

Apparently, the couple decided not to assign blame to any one individual, company or agency. Engaging legal action would also prolong the trauma and that would “not be the healthiest path” for them to take.