Most of Chiang Mai’s growth over the past few years has involved such ersatz and spurious elements as pollution, construction, population and traffic. There is much to bemoan.

The possibilities of the Royal Thai Police’s latest initiative going wrong are endless.

I have been hard on some people recently: and on one in particular. But let’s put aside my accusations, scorn and incredulous distrust of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra for one month and focus on some of the good around us.

Over the past fifteen years (180 issues), a number of writers have contributed regular columns to Citylife (formerly Chiang Mai Newsletter) ranging in subject from the informative such as Gary Ilines’s Teacher Talk, Nienke Parma’s A Dog’s Life, Ed Rose’s Out and About, John Hobday’s Weather Report, to humour columns such as Seymour Cummings from Andrew Bond, Auntie Myrtle’s attempts at helping those agonised and Oliver Benjamin’s Rabbinic efforts.