Jumbo crisis

It's always helpful to find a scapegoat when things go wrong. Scapegoat hunters in Thailand think they have found one - or rather two. A pair of ceremonial wooden elephants were installed outside the ministry of finance, only a few weeks before the country was rocked by the resignation of two finance ministers and the collapse of the baht. Coincidence? Not according to those who remember that they used to be there, until they were removed in 1990 because of their allegedly inauspicious influence. Can we expect more violence to the baht until whoever put them there has the good sense to remove them? RM