Ordinary Gweilo

Letter of the week from today’s SCMP, echoing my own thoughts:

I fail to understand why you continue to publish letters from Pierce Lam on the English Schools Foundation. In the past six weeks, since I first noticed his letters about the ESF, you have published at least five from him. The content of each is the same. Basically, he seems to have made it his personal mission to "bash the ESF". Some of his letters contain inaccuracies and falsehoods. His latest one, "ESF values at school" (March 4), is ludicrous. In it, he comments derisively on the ESF community, even if the topic was charity work which some students and teachers were doing in Sri Lanka. (Mr Lam had previously told us that ESF schools "hardly participate" in "community services".) In my community, Mr Lam’s letters are becoming an object of ridicule. If only he would adopt a worthier cause to vent his anger on, such as improving the quality of the air.

If you don’t read the letters page of the SCMP (which would be a wise decision) you may not have read Pierce Lam’s many and very boring letters on the subject of the ESF. What he doesn’t seem to have appreciated is that the ESF has taken on board much of the criticism and it now has a new chairman, new chief executive and a slimmed-down governing body.  The new people have to be given a chance to sort things out.

Pierce Lam’s letter two weeks ago was particularly stupid, as it made fun of ESF students for doing charity work in Sri Lanka.  It prompted a dignified response from some of the students, but (Mr?) Lam continues to bang way with his argument, apparently holding ESF students responsible for the governance of the schools where they study. 

He’s entitled to his point of view, but he really has nothing interesting or useful to say on the subject, and I don’t understand why the SCMP bother to print his letters.