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Peerapong hires his wife as adviser
A few weeks ago there was a public outcry after an Office of the Auditor-General investigation revealed Peerapong Manakit had topped the list of the National Broadcasting and Telecommuni-cations Commission members who had made the most overseas “study” trips last year.
He spent about one-third of his time (129 days) on 20 overseas trips at a cost of Bt12.03 million.
Now we have learned that Peerapong has reportedly appointed his wife Janya Sawangjit as his adviser, effective October 1. Her salary is Bt120,000 a month.
It is not clear if NBTC commissioners can take their advisers on overseas trips.
But don’t worry. At their meeting on Wednesday, the commissioners considered the issue and agreed to cut theirs and the office’s travel expenses.
PTT CHAIRMAN BEMOANS BANGKOK’S TRAFFIC
After arriving slightly late, PTT chairman Piyasvasti Amranand apologised to people waiting to hear his keynote speech at a dinner hosted by the German International Cooperation at the Four Seasons Hotel on Thursday.
“Bangkok traffic has become unpredictable. It took me one and a half hours from PTT,” he said.
Then he cleverly made an introductory synopsis to the evening’s topic: “Accessing Green Finance for Energy Efficiency and Environmental Improvement”.
“What we need to do is to make it more difficult for [people to get] car financing and allow energy-efficiency projects to get financing as easy as car financing,” he said.
American school teaches ‘mindfulness’
“Mindfulness” has increasingly become a popular topic among Western and Eastern executives in their bid to get better results amid a lot of distractions and volatility in today’s work environment.
It is, nevertheless, somewhat surprising to learn that an American school in Bangkok is teaching this Buddhism technique.
At the 3rd Festival for Children & Family held at IMPACT Arena, Muang Thong Thani recently, American School of Bangkok assistant director Nisanart Tavedikul gave a speech about mindfulness in education.
She said mindfulness, or Arnapannasati, was one of the integrated techniques used at ASB to help students concentrate and expand the potential of the brain in order to think more creatively and have better emotional balance.
