[bobibnoxx]

I wish this campaign good luck.

A similar drive was launched in the Philippines to say "mabuhay" instead of "hello" when answering the phone. That expression sounded very unnatural to native speakers to use as a substitute for'hello'. Needless to say, the campaign failed.

How the drive in Phllipines culminated is understandable. And the present drive in Thailand apparently by some political authorities is not surprising news to me either.

The present day Speaker in Parliament in my country, Sri Lanka, namely W. J. M. Lokubandara, is a very pleasant man, loved by all irrespective of political differences. He is anyway very nationalistic-minded despite his training as a lawyer in the British tradition. His everything, just his own self is a symbol of nationalism.

When he was a Minister in the ruling party long long years ago, he launched a campaign to replace 'Hello' with the traditional native greeting during phone conversations.

Now, 'Hello' is universal and convenient and it has even become traditional by long use. You can imagine how his campaign finally ended up. It just failed.

Applying the same logic here, the Thai Sawasdee campaign is doomed to fail, I predict with confidence. Hearing the phone ring, you get hold of the receiver and say Sawasdee k..., then that one at the other end, maybe, from Timbaktu (you never know from where) might well be offended to hear this 'strange' word, from his perspective.

To adopt from Marie's expression, needless to say, the campaign will fail!