31st Bangkok International Motor Show and Still Messed Up

This just isn't even funny any more. On the 31st attempt at hosting an International Motor Show, it is hard to fathom how the event organisers could still get the event slogan so badly wrong. This year, the opening ceremony photo looks even funnier given that there is a British representative present and in massive print in front of the special people is the "sentence": "DRIVING SAVE THE EARTH".

Now, don't misunderstand. I'm not a perfectionist type who can't tolerate errors. And even a casual scan through this and other articles on bkkautos will undoubtedly unearth several errors in spelling, grammar or syntax. But isn't it a bit different when you are playing host to the world at an international event, and it's really only necessary to get a single sentence correctly translated into English?

But it doesn't end there. Upon visiting this site, which claims to be "an official website" of the 31st Bangkok International Motor Show, the front page has this paragraph:

"Automobile is one most important parts of our living nowadays. The increasing of environment pollutions makes people around the world concerned more on environmental preservation and energy saving for better living. It is well known that CO2 Emissions are the main reason for Global Warming. Modern Diesel Technology, Hybrid Technologies and Eco Car Projects are alternatives to save energy and reduce environmental pollution. Nowadays many car manufactures are developing new engines technologies that provide higher performance at lower fuel consumption and lower CO2 Emissions. Hence, people should be aware of environment preservation and alternative energy for the brighter future of automobile industry."

Let's not get too hung up on the quality of the English used here, but again, a native speaker could have fixed this passage in 5 minutes, but have a look at the message for what it is.

Even if we accept that the Car is an important part of our living, and we accept that it is well known that CO2 emissions are the main reason for "Global Warming", is Diesel, and the Eco Car Project really an alternative to anything?

In reality, nobody is using the term "Global Warming", as it has been replaced with "Climate Change", and even "Climate Science" among the more sceptical. It is also far from being "well known" that CO2 Emissions are the main reason for "Climate Change".

The Eco Car Project doesn't bring anything new to the table in terms of alternative energy, or even "higher performance at lower fuel consumption". Eco Cars are actually smaller, lighter cars with smaller and less powerful engines than existing models. This is how fuel consumption and CO2 emissions are lowered.

Here is what it really looks like to me:

"Driving Car Sales to Save the Industry"
"Everyone involved in the 31st Bangkok International Motor Show considers the Automobile one most important parts of our making a living nowadays. Our product is increasingly causing environment pollutions and makes people around the world concerned more on environmental preservation and energy saving for better living. It is suspected that CO2 Emissions are causing climate change. So, we're going to ignore all that, and pushing on with cars based on internal combustion engines that continue to release CO2 emissions. But, cleverly we'll make it sound like we are doing something different, by calling our cars "Eco Cars" and "Hybrid cars" and "Modern Diesel" even though the technology hasn't moved on much at all. This should help people to ignore the environmental concerns and continue to buy new cars for a brighter future for all of us in the automobile industry."

If you really are concerned about the environment and believe that the car is a major contributor to the environmental problems, then please don't think that buying a new car is the solution to the problem. Energy usage and pollution caused during the manufacture of a new car will not be offset by the reduction in CO2 emissions over the life of the car vs an older car.