There must be more than a few red faces over at the Airports of Thailand. After months of denying that there were cracks, then remaining quiet while their bosses denied that there were cracks, then remaining quiet while their bosses described those cracks as “cosmetic,” authorities are now admitting that there are cracks in the runways at Suvarnabhumi.But there’s a reasonable explanation, of course. According to one unnamed investigator, quoted in a newspaper where they know a lot about the issue of cracks at Suvarnabhumi, foreign engineers who worked on the project might not have known that the area was a swamp and thus did not anticipate groundwater building up in the soil beneath the runways.Which is not to say that he was pointing the finger at foreigners or saying that, for example, foreign airlines should be forced to use the damaged runways while Thai carriers use those that have been repaired. It was just one of those matter-of-fact, mai pen rai explanations: Well we wish they would have known that the area is a flood plain, but you can’t really blame them. You know, these are the kind of foreigners who eat gaeng kheo waan as a “soup” course—haha—so not their fault, and certainly not our fault that they poot Thai mai dai.Though it’s mighty tempting to blame Singapore (no need to think up new slogans or make new signs), we’ll most likely hear more of the airport’s faults attributed to the well-meaning-but-incompetent foreign expert: Foreigners pee faster and less often than we do, so they didn’t think to build more toilets. Foreigners look forward to long walks from main airport terminals to the gates as a form of exercise—in fact in some airports overseas the “people mover” belts run against you. And foreigners prefer shopping in airports to other activities such as watching films, surfing the net, sleeping, exercising, reading, getting a massage and using the toilet.No hard feelings, foreign experts. We know your intentions were good—just like ours were. See you again at Don Muang, and we’ll give you a call when it’s time for Suvarnabhumi 2.0.