(The Nation) Harebrained idea of the month: Paint the trees.
Vagabond
By Phermsak Lilakul
Published on Oct 2, 2004
Thon Buri district officials ordered to remove paint from roadside
trunks
District officials yesterday unveiled their proposed quick fix to make
roads appear clean by painting nearby trees and lampposts white, only
to find that they were ordered to brush the project off.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) yesterday ordered Thon
Buri District Office to remove the paint from trees and lampposts on
Somdej Phrachao Taksin Road in Thon Buri, one of the main roads on the
Thon Buri side of the city.
The tree trunks and lampposts on a 2-kilometre stretch of the road
were painted white two weeks ago.
The road is among 11 in the BMA's Clean Roads Project that was
launched yesterday by Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayodhin and other
senior city-hall officials.
Permanent secretary Khunying Nathanon Thaweesin, who accompanied
Apirak to the launching ceremony on Somdej Phrachao Taksin Road, said
that district officials misunderstood the concept of the project,
albeit with good intentions.
"We ordered them to clean it up . . . I was surprised. It looked
strange," she said.
Trees and posts on other roads were not painted, she said.
Kumthorn Lertsinthai, Director of Thon Buri District Office, denied
that painting the trees was part of the Clean Roads Project.
He said that district officials had initially intended to paint the
trees white about two weeks ago to protect them from fungus and later
decided to paint the lamp posts as well.
The paint had been donated by a paint company, he added.
"It didn't cost us anything," he said.
He added that the district office had received a lot of |complaints
about the painted trees and posts from passers-by and residents in the
area who were concerned about the |harm the paint might do to |the
trees.
Ariya Arunin, a landscape-architecture professor at Chulalongkorn
University, said that applying paint to the trees was objectionable as
it damaged their beauty.
"People look at the trees because they are natural. We appreciate
their authentic colour and texture. To paint them is just fake," she
said.
The roads in the Clean Roads Project were selected on the basis that
they were affected by high degree of air pollution.
The BMA's plan it to impose pollution-emission checks on cars on those
roads and repair the surfaces.
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Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com
rc
The officials will collect bribes from the contractors.
Look at the deplorable state of the capital.
Walk and watch.
See how shoddy the pavements have been constructed.
Have you ever come across a "gutter cleaning team"?
See what they get out from there?
The hawkers, shopowners, all pour their garbage in those gutters,
where it rots, and mixed with the daily sewage the filth is
undescribable.
What will the new governor be able to do?
NOTHING
Only talk.
And what about the traffic mess?
Buses smoking running in the fourth lanes, blocking all the traffic,
taxis, private cars moving in the first lane, blocking the buses.
Can you tell how to clean up this giant mess?
Singapore style governance, hard laws.
Not wahs, and not bullshit talks will solve these problems.
Wonder if any Thai is capable of doing it.
I doubt strongly.
Talk about land of smiles.
Land of smells more likely.