Living In Thailand Blog
Saturday 23rd August 2008
A young child who hadn't even reached her second birthday was killed in a Rottweiler attack in Korat recently. Two dogs were involved.
I'm only mentioning this now because a Thai friend sent me some photos of the dead child and her mother in an e-mail. I would post them here but apart from copyright issues, the photos are extremely disturbing. The child's mother, quite understandably, looks inconsolable. She was badly injured as a result of trying to save her daughter.
I remember quite a few years ago a series of dog attacks in the UK which caused public uproar and a subsequent tabloid newspaper campaign. This resulted in the 'Dangerous Dogs Act' coming into force.
I don't know if Thailand has similar legislation. In this case, the dogs were owned by the girl's family so laws don't really help. The report in The Nation says the dogs were raised by the mother's foreign husband (who visits his family once in a while) as guard dogs. Presumably then, they weren't family pets.
It's a tragic story. I felt sadness when I read it originally but seeing the photos as well is really upsetting.
Friday 22nd August 2008
This is one of the guides from the trek I did last month. Take a look at his backpack. It's an old fertiliser bag and the shoulder straps are made from a couple of flexible tree vines. It served him well for the day, getting all his gear up and down the mountain in one piece, and it looked fairly comfortable.
Can you imagine a Westerner using such a bag? I used to spend time browsing photography forums (before I realised I could make better use of my time by actually going out and taking photos) and the process by which most Westerners buy anything is ridiculous - me included.
We ask for advice on forums; we spend hours searching and analysing web sites; we spend lots of time researching and looking at actual products; and eventually, when we are as sure as we can be, we actually make the purchase.
Westerners generally think far too much and in Thailand to think too much "kit maak" is regarded as a bit of a sin. Why do we do it?
I think (there I go again) we do it because it gives us a sense of security and well-being. If we buy something, we want to be reassured that we have bought the best we can afford. If we travel, we analyse and research beforehand not only to make sure we see the best possible sights and stay in the best possible places, but also as a kind of defence mechanism.
If there are potential dangers, then by knowing about them the dangers can be avoided. Lonely Planet and other guide book publishers have done well out of these basic human insecurities.
One problem though is that too much thinking can make us quite cynical and untrusting, and it can take the fun out of life. In the past, I have seen backpackers stepping off buses with their Lonely Planet guides in hand and being quite rude to Thais trying to help them because their LP guide probably warned them about touts and rip-off merchants. The warnings shouldn't be completely ignored but not everyone is there to rip you off.
One of the secrets to successful living in Thailand is being able to turn your thinking process on and off at will. If you constantly think about and try to analyse the crazy behaviour around you it will lead to problems because there is just so much in Thailand that will never make any sense. But obviously, if you don't think at all that will leave you open to all sorts of potential hazards.
After almost five years of living here, this is still something I have lots of problems with. My analytical Western brain always wants to diagnose and provide answers to perceived problems and when answers to certain issues seem relatively easy but nothing ever changes, it can get quite frustrating.
The Thai answer to this - when I talk to my Thai friends - is don't think about it. Thais are very good at not thinking about things and the result is that they don't suffer the same mental anguish that foreigners who think too much can suffer from. After all, there is no point worrying about things you cannot change.
This is one of those aspects of Thailand that doesn't really affect tourists but if you are planning to make a more permanent move to Thailand, it is worth considering.
Wednesday 20th August 2008
With stories of foreign men being bumped off by their Thai wives, what is the risk of this happening should you get involved with a Thai woman? I would say it is very, very low but there are some things to be aware of.
The majority of Thais are poor and there is an extremely unhealthy obsession with money in the country. I have some books written by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu and what he says about grasping for, and clinging to, attractive and desirable sense objects is the exact opposite to how most Thais live their lives.
Life is also cheap in Thailand. How cheap, you may ask? Well, contract killings aren't unusual and some figures I've heard being banded about aren't much different to the price of a new Honda Dream.
Ian Beeston, the latest victim, was reported to have arrived in Thailand with £350,000. This is probably a low to average amount for a house-owning British retiree who sells everything and cashes in his life savings.
It wouldn't go very far in the UK but, at just over Bt22 million (at current exchange rates), that amount of money could do strange things to the mind of a poor Thai woman. It would buy a lot of motorbikes, mobile phones, and som-tum.
I met a very pleasant Thai/farang couple last year. They hadn't actually married but lived as man and wife. He had bought some land and built a house adjacent to her parents house, and on the land was a rubber plantation. He also bought her a pickup truck.
Being Thailand, however, her family regarded the land, house and truck as being their joint property, rather than solely hers - or his.
She was then diagnosed with cancer and given a short time to live. He told her that after her death, he would sell everything and move on. He was only there because of her and did not wish to remain if she wasn't there.
This caused a big problem with her, and her family. She said he couldn't do this, but his response was he could, and he would.
It so happens he was living in a province of southern Thailand that has a particularly murderous reputation. I'm not going to name it but anyone familiar with the south will probably know which one I am referring to.
When I told Iss the story, her response was quite direct. She told me in no uncertain terms that he would be in a lot of danger if, after his wife died, he did what he said he would do. She wanted me to call him and tell him this. I didn't, fearing he would think I was crazy, but I trusted Iss's intuition. She is, after all, a southern Thai herself.
Unfortunately, I lost touch with him so I don't know what happened in the end.
Being bumped off is a little extreme but losing everything to a Thai woman is probably more common. Remember that foreigners can't own land in Thailand so, when buying houses, they are often bought in the Thai woman's name for convenience.
If she decides one day that she doesn't want the foreigner around any longer who bought the house, she might decide to kick him out and install her Thai boyfriend. What's to stop her if the house is in her name?
An expat wrote to me about four years ago on this subject and offered some good advice. He started off making regular payments into his wife's bank account until she had a good enough credit rating to get a mortgage.
She then took out a mortgage in her name and he gave her money each month to make the repayments. The house wasn't paid for and she needed him around otherwise she couldn't make the payments and risked losing her home.
It might be tempting just to buy a house outright but if the woman is living in a fully paid-for house there might be a temptation to get it all for herself.
Dale Henry signed his own death warrant by letting his Thai wife know about a big life insurance policy he had taken out. The moral here is to be unassuming about wealth in Thailand. Keep a low profile and don't flaunt money around because it attracts all the wrong kind of attention. And trust no one.
Tuesday 19th August 2008
While driving, Thais don't slow down for anyone; and they certainly don't stop to allow pedestrians to cross.
I was teaching some young students recently and one girl surprised everyone in the group (including me) by telling us she was only 14. Thai kids normally look younger than their real age but she looked about four years older.
In a subsequent lesson, I asked them to tell me where they were going next, and how. She told me she was going home by motorbike. This also surprised me because I thought the minimum age for riding a motorbike was older than 14. I therefore asked the question.
There are some questions that Thais don't like, and this - apparently - is one of them. Instead of answering me, she didn't say anything but just looked irritated and evasive.
"Why is the farang asking irrelevant questions when he understands nothing about how things work here?" she seemed to be thinking.
It was one of the other girls who told me the minimum age is 15, so it was clear that the first girl couldn't have had a licence and was riding her motorbike illegally.
The second girl then went on to tell me that kids as young as eight and nine ride around on motorbikes. It was unnecessary to tell me because I have seen them on many occasions. She went on to say that if they see a policeman, they stop and go in another direction. Everyone laughed.
The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) has been protesting outside the British Embassy in Bangkok this week because they aren't happy Thaksin and his missus have been allowed to hole up in England to escape Thai justice. They want Thaksin back so he can face several trials; and they want Pojaman back so they can throw her in jail.
Meanwhile, Thaksin has put his huge publicity machine into action and is telling everyone that the Thai judicial system is corrupt and biased against him; and that these are grounds for him not to be extradited.
Pojaman's trial was perfectly fair. The only attempt to pervert the course of justice recently was when Thaksin's lawyers attempted to bribe court officials with money left inside a chocolate box.
But who can blame anyone abroad for believing him, especially people who have been to Thailand? And many Brits have been to Thailand. When they see the general levels of lawlessness that exist in the country, it gives a lot of credibility to Thaksin's claims.
One of the biggest problems with Thailand is that the Thais either don't know what they want; or - as I have said before - they want to be able to have their cake and eat it.
When it suits them, they want foreign countries to believe that their legal and judicial systems are strong and respectable, but in everyday situations they want the freedom to be able to do what they want to do without being bothered by Western concepts of 'law'.
It's the same with prostitution. Officially, prostitution is illegal and doesn't exist in Thailand. Furthermore, many Thais want to give the impression that Thailand is a conservative and morally uplifting society based on Buddhist principles and precepts.
But anyone who has ever been to Thailand - and even those who haven't - know the reality. Prostitution is a massive industry and a huge moneyspinner. Because of this, the Thais turn a blind eye but - hypocritically - get upset if foreigners associate Thailand with prostitution.
If it's a case of Thais not knowing what they want, they need to decide soon. If it's a case of thinking they can have their cake and eat it, what they are beginning to realise is they can't.
You can't fool all the people all the time and if they think they can, it will only result in further losses of credibility.
Friday 15th August 2008
I missed this story from a few days ago but a friend in the UK pointed it out. It's the classic tale of a sad, lonely and vulnerable old farang who retires; goes to live in Thailand; meets a Thai girl a lot younger than himself; falls in love; and thinks all his prayers have been answered. Remember, there's no such thing as a free lunch.
British man murdered by his Thai bride and her lover
Earlier this year, there was the case of Canadian national Dale Henry who was shot dead by the lover of his Thai wife after she found out that he had a Bt32 million life insurance policy.
It's easy to say the men are stupid but emotions are powerful things. The old guys you see all the time in Thailand with turkey necks who are widowed, or have never been married, are desperately lonely and don't stand a chance in hell of meeting a young, attractive girl in their own country.
But they come to Thailand, head out to the bars in the tourist areas, and they are instantly surrounded by exotic-looking, gorgeous young creatures - young enough to be their granddaughters in some cases. And for a very small amount of money, they can spend the night with these gorgeous girls.
If a man is old, sad and lonely, it doesn't matter how intelligent or sensible he is, he is guaranteed to get emotionally attached very quickly once he has had intimate contact and felt the soft, smooth skin of a young Thai girl.
Not only will it be the physical side of the relationship, either. She will no doubt tell him how strongly she feels about him (all lies), and Thai girls know exactly how to behave to make a man feel very good.
Next, he will naturally want to make the arrangement more permanent and the only way he has of doing that is by handing over money and gifts; and by promising marriage, houses and cars, etc. Many of the girls may not have had much of a formal education but they understand very well the weaknesses of foreign men.
Sometimes it works out but often it doesn't. If it doesn't work out and the man is lucky, he will escape with a broken heart and a broken bank account, but in the cases of the men above, they weren't so lucky.
And neither were they the only foreign men to have suffered such a fate in Thailand, nor will they be the last.
What more is there to say? As I've said elsewhere, if you go about it the right way there are some real gems to be found in Thailand but, like anywhere else, it takes time and effort to find them.
Unfortunately, many foreign men are not prepared to invest time and effort when it comes to meeting Thai girls. They take the shortest cuts possible and that's why everything goes so horribly wrong so often.
Guys, have a great time when you visit Thailand but be very, very careful when encountering Thai girls because potentially you are playing with fire. Be especially careful if you are emotionally weak - and you know that you are emotionally weak - because this will make you extremely vulnerable.
Devious Thai women can sense emotionally weak foreign men in the same way that a shark can sense a tiny drop of blood in a huge ocean.
Also, just try to step back from the situation for a while and take a reality check. If she works in a bar in a tourist area, she will meet thousands of foreign men. If she's 35 years younger than you, and gorgeous, do you really think you are the man she has spent her life waiting for? Wake up.
Canadian schoolteacher Christopher Paul Neil, a former trainee priest, has been sentenced to three years and three months in jail for abusing a 13-year-old boy in Thailand.
Tuesday 12th August 2008
Traffic policeman killed by road racers
This is not the first time a policeman has been killed in Thailand while trying to stop young road racers. They're a menace to society. The Thai authorities need to clamp down; and clamp down hard.
Tuesday 12th August 2008
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Today is the 76th birthday of HM Queen Sirikit, and also Mother's Day in Thailand.
Of the many foreign countries visited by Britons, the highest number of arrests and lost passports occur in Spain. Statistically this isn't surprising because Spain is the most visited country by Britons.
Which country do you think has proportionally the highest death rate and number of hospital cases among Britons? Yes, welcome to Thailand. Most occur as a result of traffic accidents. As I have said many, many times before, Thai roads are extremely dangerous places.
The manner and speed at which many Thais drive, with no regard for their own or other people's lives, terrifies me. What is particularly terrifying is that many of the maniac drivers are people who drive passenger vehicles for a living. Here's an example from this very morning - 10 injured in city bus crash
I feel generally safe living in Thailand but a serious traffic accident remains my greatest fear. I try to avoid travelling by road as much as I can but of course this is impossible to avoid completely.
Almost every time I see Iss, my little sister, she tells me about someone she knew who was killed in a motorbike accident. The last story was a couple of weeks ago concerning a young girl she knew who had just started work after graduating. She was going to work on her motorbike and was killed in a big accident.
I see motorbike accidents - and the victims of motorbike accidents - all the time. If I miss seeing actual accidents, I am still aware there has been a recent accident by the white lines painted on the roads by the police who mark where the accident occurred. These are very common.
Most accidents are just scrapes and bruises - maybe with the odd broken bone. A girl I know at work appeared a couple of weeks ago with her elbow and knee all bandaged up. We had a little laugh and some banter but when someone is killed or severely injured it isn't funny.
If you look at Thais closely, you will see that many have scars on their arms and legs from old motorbike accidents. Back in England, I never knew anyone personally who was killed in a traffic accident. That is not the case with Thais; all of whom will have known someone who was killed that way, and quite likely a close relative.
What amazes me is that despite the constant death and carnage, there are still Thais who ask me why I don't ride a motorbike and when I tell them it is because motorbikes are dangerous in Thailand, they tell me they aren't.
Monday 11th August 2008
As expected, Thaksin has fled to England.
With the odds heavily stacked against him of winning any of the forthcoming court cases, and with his wife already sentenced to three years in jail, he obviously decided that flight was a better option than fight. It doesn't impress me that UK immigration allowed him and Pojaman in the country but perhaps the UK government will reconsider the situation later.
Newspaper reports are still talking about 'political asylum' but as I explained yesterday, I don't see what political asylum has to do with it.
I will never understand Thaksin. Just this morning I was talking to a southern Thai lady who was similarly baffled. The normal reaction in southern Thailand when Thaksin's name is mentioned is for people to start spitting venom but she said it was a shame.
She told me that Thaksin had lots of good ideas and, had he not been so greedy and corrupt, he could have gone down in Thai history as one of the greatest Thai politicians and statesmen ever. Instead, he will now roam the earth never being able to return to the place of his birth. That is tough for any Thai because 'Nation' is one of the three cornerstones of the primary Thai value system.
When he came to power he declared he would end corruption in Thailand. His argument was that he was already very wealthy so he had no need to be corrupt. However, that was just the first of many lies.
Even before he came to power he had more money than he could ever spend. What is it then that makes people so greedy that they can never have enough? All I can think is that it must be some kind of mental illness.
The lady I spoke to this morning wasn't wrong in her assessment and there are still legacies of the good things Thaksin did. As I've mentioned before, customer service in Thailand can be pretty dire at times but this isn't what you will find if you go into an AIS office when you have a problem with your mobile phone.
AIS was part of Thaksin's Shin Corporation that he sold for a huge, tax-free profit to Singapore, and to walk through the doors of any AIS office is like being instantly transported to Singapore. The staff are very efficient and the customer service is how it should be.
Like Lee Kuan Yew, Thaksin was able to see and adopt certain behaviour and procedures from other countries and cultures which improved his own country. But what Lee Kuan Yew didn't do was take a huge slice of the pie for himself with every project that made Singapore better.
Without being overtly greedy, LKY still ended up being fabulously rich; his family dynasty - after 50 years - is still the dominant political force in Singapore (and there is no sign that will change any time soon); Singapore continues to prosper; and at the same time he has enormous respect.
Critics of LKY may not be so generous but, from what I have read, his first priority was always Singapore and - as the chief architect of the blueprint to transform Singapore from a swampy backwater to what it is today - he became wealthy as a result of Singapore getting richer. The difference with Thaksin was that he and his family were always the number one priority, and never Thailand or the Thai people.
Yes, some people did benefit for a while but there was always an ulterior motive. Thaksin needed to secure his position of political power and he very cleverly tapped into Thailand's rural poor who make up the majority of the electorate with some clever populist polices. These policies were short term and unsustainable but they served a specific purpose for him in that he became unassailable through the ballot box.
And he didn't waste any time embarking upon his own personal agenda. Upon becoming Prime Minister in February 2001, his first foreign trip was to Burma in June 2001. Officially, this was a bridge-building trip to repair differences between the two countries but Thaksin (allegedly) was busy selling telecommunications equipment on behalf of his own private company, and (allegedly) assisting the Burmese generals in the purchase of this equipment with cheap loans from Thailand.
This case was one of the cases he was due to face in the coming months but now he has skipped bail and become an international fugitive, it is highly unlikely he will ever be tried. See the BBC link below for details of the cases he was due to face.
By not being as greedy as he was, Thaksin could have been to Thailand what LKY is to Singapore, but his greed knew no bounds. And thus I return to my original question as to why someone who is already enormously wealthy can never have enough?
As I speculated, it can only be some form of mental illness. Because of this, the emotion I should be feeling is pity but his having caused so many problems for the people of Thailand, I can't bring myself to feel pity for him.
The statement he has released contains the usual bleating about vendettas against him and all charges being politically motivated. What is unfortunate is that many foreigners who don't know the first thing about him will believe this to be true. He is Dr Thaksin after all, isn't he, and how can anyone styling them self as Dr be crooked? Don't be deceived.
Now that arrest warrants have been issued, it will be interesting to see if the Thai authorities are interested in starting extradition proceedings, or whether they are satisfied just to finally have gotten rid of the problem that has plagued Thailand for so long.
Last time around, attempts to extradite Thaksin were on weak ground but the situation now is a little different.
The other big question is what will happen to the billions of baht in his various bank accounts that the Thai authorities have frozen? Thaksin has always claimed that the only thing he ever wanted to do was help the poor people of Thailand so in that case he would no doubt approve if the money were to be used for development and education projects in Isaan and the three troubled provinces in the deep south. I think that would be a great way to use it. After all, it belongs to the people of Thailand anyway.
Sunday 10th August 2008
The mental image I always used to have of female weightlifters and discus throwers, etc, was of fearsome looking, testosterone-laden females from the old Eastern Bloc. It comes as a bit of surprise, therefore, that Thailand - home to some of the most beautiful, graceful females on earth - continues to produce champion female weightlifters.
Congratulations to Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakon (otherwise known as Nong Kay - but not from Nong Khai) on winning the first gold medal at the Beijing Olympics for Thailand.
Until I checked a few minutes ago, I wasn't sure what the difference was between 'Compulsive Liar' and 'Pathological Liar'. I think the term I am looking for is the latter. Pathological Liar. This definition comes from the Truth About Deception web site:
"A pathological liar is usually defined as someone who lies incessantly to get their way and does so with little concern for others. Pathological lying is often viewed as a coping mechanism developed in early childhood and it is often associated with some other type of mental health disorder. A pathological liar is often goal-oriented (i.e., lying is focused - it is done to get one's way). Pathological liars have little regard or respect for the rights and feelings of others. A pathological liar often comes across as being manipulative, cunning and self-centered."
Yes, that's the term I was looking for. It fits perfectly with the people I have in mind.
As reported by The Nation yesterday, "I would like to confirm that Thaksin and Pojaman will definitely return home," and from today, "Thaksin and his wife failed to return to Bangkok on Sunday." What a surprise.
I am confused about this whole 'seeking exile' or 'seeking political asylum' business and how it applies to Thaksin and Pojaman. According to Immigration.com (which is American based but I assume the definition is basically the same for all countries):
"Political asylum may be granted to people who are already in (a foreign country) and are unable or unwilling to return to their home country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion."
Tax evasion (theft) is a criminal offence so what has this got to do with seeking political asylum?
I was also confused when, after Pojaman's conviction, she was allowed to leave the country. You mean to say that the Thai authorities didn't confiscate her passport? The Nation helped to explain this by reporting that "Under Thai law, Thaksin and Pojaman may remain fugitives for the rest of their lives."
Ah, the term 'fugitive' makes a lot more sense in the circumstances but most reports seem to be using the terms 'exile' and 'political asylum' which don't make any sense. Or am I missing something?
If their chosen location in which to live as fugitives is the UK, I will be interested to see what the UK immigration response will be to admitting a convicted criminal, along with another person who is facing several court cases in his home country.
Also, what will be the Premier League's reaction regarding their 'Fit and Proper Persons' test? It is beyond me how Thaksin ever passed this test to take ownership of Man City in the first place, but according to the Daily Telegraph, the football authorities didn't seem all that bothered about getting relevant information about him from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
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