Predicting the end of the world
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When Dr Virabongsa Ramangkura said, "The country will be doomed if the government proceeds with the rice-pledging scheme," armchair rice experts gave him a thunderous standing ovation. Just when farmers were about to celebrate, a party pooper shows up.
I feel sympathy for farmers. They stoop for hours in the scorching sun, transplanting rows of rice plants, one seedling at a time. Their sun-darkened skin is a symbol of low social status in a country so obsessed with light complexion. Society sees them as dumb and uncouth. Yeah, but we honour them, calling them the “backbone of the country”.
Of course, Virabongsa is the country’s prominent economist, but you don’t have to take his words religiously. Economists are like fortune-tellers: they predict something is going to happen, and later explain why it didn’t happen.
Meechai Burapa
Chiang Mai
