Living In Thailand Blog
Monday 16th October 2006
I left the UK for Thailand a little over three years ago. I have not been back and I have absolutely no desire to go back. I will have to go back one day (even if only for a short time) and that fact fills me with dread. I have heard predictions from different, unrelated sources in the past weeks that there will soon be racial riots in Britain. One commentator remarked that the only thing Enoch Powell got wrong was his timing.
The country (which along with America has seen itself fit to tell other countries what to do in recent years) is in a mess. There are many reasons (many political) but much of it is cultural. There is a culture of self where no one is more important than the individual. This has eroded respect in society and when people do not have respect for others, society becomes dangerous.
There is a drink culture. All social activity is based around drinking alcohol. People don't deal with problems; they just get drunk to temporarily forget about their problems. The problems don't go away and in the long run drinking only makes things worse. When people who do not respect others lose their inhibitions under the influence of alcohol, things start to get very dangerous.
There is a culture of conflict and this is very strong. If people only consider themselves and do not respect others, they have no tolerance for others and conflict results. Many British people actually thrive on conflict as evidenced by their behaviour and the TV soap operas and 'reality TV' they enjoy watching so much, many of which are based on conflict.
The culture of conflict is a national culture that affects all faiths and religions. A Muslim woman teacher in the UK is in the hot seat for refusing to remove her veil while teaching and she is making a big religious issue of the matter at a time when tensions are already close to boiling point between Muslims and non-Muslims. She says she cannot remove it in the presence of men.
However, it transpires that when she was interviewed for the job (by a man) she didn't wear the veil and she gave no indication of her strong religious beliefs even though the job is at a Christian school. She only started wearing it once she began teaching. The whole episode smacks of hypocrisy and conflict. She knew full well what she was doing and she knew it would cause an uproar which, apparently, is what she wanted all along.
If you watch the movie clip on the BBC link I have given where she is asked about this in a BBC interview and refuses to answer the question, you will see just what a silly little girl she really is.
In Thailand people avoid conflict. In the UK it is necessary all the time to avoid people who are looking for conflict. It is necessary to be very careful about what you say or who you look at in Britain if you don't want to be involved in a physical or verbal assault.
I have been verbally assaulted on the London underground for the heinous crime of glancing at a newspaper which the guy sitting next to me was reading. Yes, really. In the UK you walk along with your eyes down to avoid eye contact; you try very hard not to look at or brush against people in pubs; and you don't dare speak to other people's children who you don't know because obviously you are the type of person who preys sexually on children.
The problem with the UK is that these issues are never looked at as cultural ones so they never get fixed. Laws are introduced in a feeble attempt to stop problems but these don't change cultural attitudes and no one ever gets to the root of the problems.
One day I may decide to leave Thailand and with this in mind I sometimes think about where I might go next. I'm still not sure but there is one country that I have no intention of going back to and that, unfortunately, is the place of my birth.
Sunday 15th October 2006
Here I go again; writing about stuff I don't really want to write about but feel obliged to in order to counter the naïve comments of some foreigners.
Why is it that foreigners (even seemingly intelligent ones) have such a poor understanding of Thai politics and why is it that they insist on applying their own thinking and ideologies to a country that is unimaginably different to their own? Perhaps they have been deceived by the shopping malls and branches of McDonalds in Bangkok into believing that Thailand is somehow similar to where they come from?
There are still Thais alive today who lived in Thailand when it was governed by a feudal system under an absolute monarch. That system ended officially in 1932. I say officially because in practice it didn't end.
The King has far more power than any normal constitutional monarch and the powerful forces in Thai culture of social hierarchy and patron-client relationships mean Thai society is anything but equal. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing.
When communism fell across the old Soviet Bloc in the late 80's, many people in that region struggled to cope with the new way of life. Communism was far from perfect but they understood the system, knew what to expect from it and could survive. They weren't equipped and didn't have the necessary education to deal with a free market economy.
Many Thais in a traditional 'client' role are very happy to be taken care of by a 'patron' so that they can enjoy their traditional way of life without worry or responsibility. They don't want to be big people and are not greedy for material things. It is a system that has worked for a very long time and it works well.
Ever since the 1932 revolution, Thailand has not really been one thing or the other. Many rural people (who make up the majority of the electorate) still behave in the old way and want the old way; the only difference now is that occasionally they have to vote but for many, all that means is an opportunity to earn a few hundred Baht by selling their vote to the highest bidder.
It's a flawed system and with any flawed system there are bound to be problems. Had there not been any problems, Thailand wouldn't have had so many coups and it wouldn't have been necessary to rewrite the constitution so many times.
Yet here we are in 2006 (74 years after the change to a democratic system) in the aftermath of yet another coup and the constitution is being rewritten once again.
My next point is how these problems have been resolved and every time it is the King who resolves political crises. Protocol dictates how events are presented to the public but make no mistake who is the architect.
The King would not be able to resolve these problems if it weren't for the fact he has supreme power and respect in Thailand. If he says that a situation is in a mess - as he did earlier this year - the situation gets fixed. When Thais are killing each other in the streets - as has happened in the past - and he calls in the leaders of the opposing parties, they prostrate themselves at his feet and the killing stops.
Thaksin was a little different. He was a civilian dictator rather than a military one and such was his arrogance that he had to be driven into exile because he would not step down voluntarily.
The point I am trying to make is that if things were any different in Thailand regarding the monarchy and if that power didn't exist then Thailand would be in one hell of a mess. It is essentially important for Thailand therefore that the institution of monarchy remains above the law, above politics and above criticism.
A book was published earlier this year about King Bhumibol titled 'The King Never Smiles' written by Paul M Handley, an American. It is unlike the books published in Thailand about the King in that it is critical of many things.
It was banned in Thailand even before it was published and the Yale University Press web site, the book's publishers, was blocked by Thai ISPs.
However, some Westerners with an interest in Thailand have got hold of copies and comments have started to appear on the Internet. A typical comment from wishy-washy, do-goody farangs is that no one should be above criticism. I disagree for the reasons stated above.
A review of the book written by Chris Baker, an author I respect very much, can be found here.
You need only to look at the British royal family to see what happens when people lose respect for monarchy. Criticism leads to satire, which leads to lampooning. Satirical magazines and TV shows ridicule and make laughing stocks out of the monarchy.
If Prince Charles speaks out about an issue, the tabloid press grab hold of it, distort his words, take everything out of context and turn it into a joke. Fortunately, the British monarchy isn't very important to Britain because democracy is well established. In Thailand though, this isn't the case.
While the Thais continue to struggle to get to get to grips with democracy there is no more important institution than a monarchy that is above criticism, above politics and above the law to pick up the pieces when things go horribly wrong. In two or three generations - with increasing levels of education throughout the entire electorate - the situation may have changed but as things stand now, Thailand cannot afford to be without a strong and utterly respected monarchy.
Even Pridi Banomyong, one of the key architects of the 1932 revolution, understood the importance of the monarchy. "After Thailand's post-war experience of military dictatorship, he (Pridi) became more aware than ever of the important role the monarchy could play in blocking the aspirations of dictators." This is a quote from the book Pridi by Pridi.
Thailand is not America, it's not Britain, it's not Australia. It is Thailand. Non-native people in the New World have never experienced the kind of society that existed in Thailand 70 years ago and people from the Old World cannot remember such a time.
One common theme in forum postings is how frustrated Thais get with foreigners who bang on about freedom, democracy and the right to criticise when they clearly do not understand Thai society. I understand their frustration. Most foreigners still do not have a clue.
Who do you think knows Thai society best? May I humbly suggest the answer to that question would be the Thais? Why then, do so many foreigners still insist on telling them how to run their own country? How can anyone be as arrogant to think they know a country better than the people who live there?
Thailand is in good hands and the people running the country know exactly what they are doing.
Saturday 14th October 2006
Today is Democracy Day in Thailand and it is perhaps appropriate to reflect on the events of 1973 a little more than usual this year in light of the events last month.
The struggle for a fairer way of life for all Thais has been going on for a long time but there are still many hurdles yet to overcome. Pridi started it all in 1932 and in 1973 seventy-seven people - mainly students from the university that he founded (Thammasat) - were gunned down by the Thai army.
Thirty-three years and two coups later we saw another coup and tanks in the streets of Bangkok but this time, thankfully, no blood was shed. I have confidence in the Thais to get things sorted out provided they are left alone and other countries do not insist on interfering in matters which they don't understand.
Change subject.
I've never been one to suffer fools gladly but since moving to Thailand it has become necessary to learn how to be a lot more tolerant. Not only am I a guest in the country, but there are marked cultural and language differences compared to where I come from so I can't expect things to be the same.
It's not appropriate to scream and shout when frustrations occur because everything is different in Thailand. Count to ten, calm down, and tell yourself that everything is different here.
That theory works fine for me most of the time but there are occasions when my tolerance threshold is very low ... such as now. Many Thais I know have colds at the moment and I think I have picked up the cold virus even though I have no external symptoms.
I don't have a sore throat, or a cough or a runny nose but I have had a headache for two days and have slept an inordinate amount in that time. I feel lethargic, unenthusiastic and unmotivated. In short I feel pretty lousy and irritable, and it is at times like these when I have least tolerance.
I have spoken quite favourably about the Thais on this web site because I don't like the way that some farangs (who only mix with certain sectors of Thai society) treat everyone in Thailand like idiots. I know many very clever Thais and it is not fair to base the whole population on bar girls and tuk-tuk drivers.
However, there are times when I wonder if I am on the same planet as people here. When my tolerance levels are low, even little things can be enough to tip me over the edge. I try to stay indoors at those times and avoid people but it isn't always possible.
I went for lunch today and a young lad was serving. He asked me what I wanted to drink. I wasn't very thirsty so told him a glass of water. Water by the glass is free and it hardly seemed worth buying a bottle that I wouldn't drink.
Two minutes later, he brings over an opened bottle. I wasn't happy and because of my bad mood I laid into him a bit so he wasn't happy. The result was a frosty atmosphere in the restaurant and a degree of self-loathing because I don't like myself when I act that way.
You're probably thinking that he might not have understood me. My answer is that he understood. I am aware of my limitations with Thai and know if I am being understood or not.
Secondly, the same thing happens frequently when I eat out with Iss. She is sometimes very specific about what she wants and there are absolutely no language problems when she orders. The waitress acknowledges her request, writes it down .... and then brings out specifically what she didn't want.
In the past we have sent back whole fish because the waitress wasn't capable of relaying what the customer wanted to the kitchen staff.
After my lunch I went to buy a couple of buns. As I approached the counter the young girl assistant ran off giggling. This happens sometimes when Thais feel that they are unable to deal with a foreigner. She came back with another girl for support.
I ordered what I wanted and got a muted, "Ah, poot Thai dai." I didn't say any more. On days like today I just can't be bothered with this tiresome behaviour. Even if I couldn't speak any Thai, I could have pointed to what I wanted and she could have dealt with the order instead of acting like a silly five year-old.
A guy who contacted me through this site arrived in Thailand with his wife earlier this year and now lives nearby. He told me they were having lots of problems with the receptionist at their apartment who couldn't understand anything.
He had wanted to rent a TV and pointed out in a dictionary the words for rent and television but she just looked even more puzzled.
I went to meet him one day and asked her to call him in his room so he could let me through the security door. She said she didn't know him. He is a mountain of a man - about 6'6" and over 300 pounds. I told her (and again, all this was in Thai) his name, where he comes from and that he is a big man, but still she just looked puzzled.
You couldn't miss him in a small town, let alone a small apartment building but this girl was unable to comprehend anything.
Outside my apartment building are some motorcycle taxi drivers who wait there regularly. One of them gives rides to both me and Iss. Yesterday, when he was taking Iss to work, he told her that I hadn't been to the bus station this month and that in previous months I went there all the time. What?????
I tried to think about this and I think he has taken me to the bus station once in the last year when I got the bus to Phuket to meet my family. Iss is now suspicious and wants to know why I have been making frequent trips to the bus station. I know how her mind works and what she thinks I was going there for if it wasn't to catch a bus.
As I said, I know some very clever Thais. Mainly they are people I meet through work at the university. However, outside the halls of academia it is a different story. The Thais are kind, generous and lovely people generally but quite a few barely know what day of the week it is and one or two are several sandwiches short of a picnic.
This is the problem with the 'democratic' system that Thaksin so easily exploited. Regardless of intelligence, everyone gets one vote. Wouldn't it be a great idea if we tested everyone first and then issued them with different voting quotas based on their intelligence? I guarantee that Bush wouldn't be President if the USA had such a system in place.
Anyway, back to what I was saying. If you plan to spend any length of time in Thailand, be prepared to exercise extreme patience and tolerance. You'll need to if you want to keep your blood pressure at a safe level.
Friday 13th October 2006
An e-mail from one of my web site correspondents reminded me that I should add something about the changes to mobile phone numbers in Thailand that took place on 1st September 2006. I was told of the changes a while ago but took no action. Both the old and new numbers work at the moment but presumably at some time in the future the plug will be pulled on the old numbers.
It's very simple. Mobile phone numbers will simply change from nine to ten digits by the addition of an '8' after the leading zero.
01 234 5678 will therefore change to 081 234 5678. (This will bring back a few memories for Londoners.) 04 345 6789 will change to 084 345 6789.
If calling a mobile phone number in Thailand internationally, it is the same procedure as before but remembering to include the additional '8'. Dial your international number access code, followed by the international dialling code for Thailand, followed by the phone number without the leading zero.
+66 81 234 5678 or +66 84 345 6789 for the examples above.
I don't know when the old numbers will stop working but you would be advised to make the changes now to avoid problems in future.
Thursday 12th October 2006
As individuals, what (if anything) can we do about problems we are aware of but - as individuals - do not have the power to fix? I'll start with an important example but first an analogy.
You have a big pot of pennies from which you take money to survive. Up until October 9th this year (just a few days ago) every penny you took was replenished but after that date pennies were only taken out and not put back in. Obviously, by the end of the year your little stash of pennies is going to be a lot smaller than it was at the beginning of the year. Not good and not a good way to start 2007.
Well, this is the current situation the earth's resources are in. We are taking more resources out of nature than can be sustained. Just nine years ago, we didn't reach this point until December 19th but with each year that passes the date moves forward a little. For more details on this story see the BBC News Site.
If we take a little time to think about the consequences of this fact, it is not difficult to understand the path we are on. At this rate, the world's resources will completely run out in the next two or three generations.
Getting back to my original question, then. What can (or what should) we do?
Do we lie awake at night worrying ourselves sick that our children and grandchildren will suffer miserably because of our actions now or do we just tell ourselves that we can't do anything to change the world so don't worry about it. "Does anyone fancy a pint?"
Do we try to cut down on our own consumption or just continue our material greed? Seemingly innocuous items such as mobile phones use vast amounts of natural resources but many people replace them regularly. Car production uses even more and then the cars contribute pollution to the atmosphere.
I'm not actually in either camp but I do at least try to recognise issues and even though I know I can't make a big splash, I try to make a few ripples. The BBC's IT analyst, Bill Thompson, is a good guy who is not scared to make people aware of important issues in the world of IT. I wrote to him a few months ago and this was his reply.
"I think that what I do is like dropping pebbles into a pond - each one produces a small ripple, but if you get enough other people dropping their pebbles too then you get interference patterns and eventually you might get a rather big peak... and then people will notice."
I liked Bill Thompson's words and I try to do the same. I get upset about certain things in the world that just aren't right. I know I can't fix the problems by myself but if none of us do or say anything then nothing will ever change.
Thaksin Shinawatra was bad news for Thailand but he, himself, had predicted staying in power for at least 20 years and just a year ago it looked as if that prediction would be correct. This didn't stop The Nation newspaper continuing to tell the truth about him and it didn't stop Sondhi Limthongkul from mounting a campaign against Thaksin that saw him ousted eventually.
Maybe they thought they were powerless to do anything but, to use Bill Thompson's words, they continued making ripples which eventually led to interference patterns.
I've had two charges made against me recently which I refute. I do not suffer from angst and I do not need to 'chill out' in Thailand, thank you very much. I am very relaxed about my own life but it doesn't stop me having a conscience and speaking out about things that I believe are wrong in the world.
Wednesday 11th October 2006
The first thing any student of Thai will be told is that Thai is a tonal language. Words that appear to be basically the same to non-Thais, but pronounced with slightly different inflections, have completely different meanings.
It is still something that I have major problems with and, at times, makes what I am trying to say unintelligible to some Thais. There is a well known sentence used in English language Thai phrase books to illustrate the tonal nature of the language.
What I have never seen however, is an explanation of the tones used in the sentence so today I will attempt to explain the tone rules behind it. None of this has been verified so if you spot something that is wrong, please let me know.
The Thai words for wood, new, and burn are basically mai but with different tones. In addition, mai is used to indicate interrogative sentences, in other words, it is a question particle. Asking if new wood burns would therefore be four mais in a row but with different tones. Let's take a closer look.
ไม้ใหม่ไหม้ไหม
The first couple of things to note are a lack of spaces between words and the Thai sentence structure which in this case is noun, adjective, verb and finally the interrogation. So, the direct English translation would be: wood new burn ?
Next, you may have noticed that tone marks are used above certain letters. These aren't like the tone marks used in English transliterations of Thai words found in phrase books to simply indicate that tones are high, low, rising or falling.
The tone of the syllable is a combination of different factors which include the tone mark (if there is one present), consonant class, vowel length and whether the syllable is classed as live or dead. The same tone mark can mean either a high or falling, or a low or falling tone depending on other factors.
This sentence only contains two vowels and two consonants. The two vowels used perform exactly the same function and have the same sound which is an 'ai' sound, as in pie.
ไ is more commonly used than ใ but they can be treated in the same way.
These particular vowels always appear before the consonant or consonant cluster (unlike English) and are short vowels. Each syllable in this monosyllabic sentence ends with a short 'ai' sound so each is classed as a live syllable. A live syllable is one that you can continue voicing in a droning sound.
ม is a consonant with an 'M' sound in English. It is a low class consonant. There is no other Thai consonant with the same sound (which is unusual) and it retains an 'M' sound whether it is at the beginning or end of a syllable. The sound of many Thai consonants change depending on whether they are at the beginning or end of a syllable.
ห is a consonant with an 'H' sound normally but in this sentence it is silent and is used purely for tonal reasons. It is a high class consonant.
The first word is wood. ไม้ The combination of the mai toh tone mark used with a low class consonant means that the word has a high tone.
The second word is new. ใหม่ What we need to pay attention to here is the silent ห whose only purpose it is to convert the consonant that follows to high class. The combination of the mai ayk tone mark with a low class consonant results in a falling tone but our consonant has now been converted to high class. The combination of the tone mark with a high class consonant results in a low tone.
The next word is burn. ไหม้ Once again, the initial low class consonant has been converted to a high class consonant by the preceding silent character ห. The combination of the mai toh tone mark with a high class consonant results in a falling tone.
Finally, the last word which indicates an interrogative sentence.
ไหม
The class changing silent consonant has been used again to change the initial consonant to high class from low class and there is no tone mark. In the absence of a tone mark we need to use another rule. We have a high class consonant and a live syllable which would normally result in a rising tone.
However, there is one final complication. As the modern Thai language has evolved, some common words are pronounced differently to how the standard tone rules would imply. According to the rules, mai - the question particle - should be a rising tone but in everyday usage it is pronounced with a high tone.
It is quite feasible in Thai to have a sentence where all the words are basically the same sound (mai) but each word has a different meaning because the tones are different - mai(h) mai(l) mai(f) mai(h)
Westerners use tones in language but for emphasis and mood; not for changing the meaning of words.
If you are still not sure what is meant by different tones, a mid-tone can be thought of as speaking in a normal tone. Saying, "What," in a very surprised way would be a high tone. Telling someone, "No," emphatically for the umpteenth time would be done using a low tone.
A falling tone would result if you were trying to attract someone's attention from a distance by calling out their name. For examples of rising tones listen to the final word in any sentence spoken by any Australian.
With grateful thanks to David Smyth, Benjawan Poomsan Becker and Richard G. Robertson.
Tuesday 10th October 2006
Pricing in Thailand makes no sense whatsoever. Second-hand goods (no matter what they are, but especially cars) are vastly overpriced. I'm not complaining too loudly though because when I upgrade a camera lens next month, the trade-in price for my old lens will be far higher than I could achieve anywhere else. It's OK if you are selling but not buying.
The way that goods packaged in different quantities are priced also makes no sense. I have written about this elsewhere but ran into the same thing yesterday while out shopping.
On my shopping list was toothpaste and it so happened that Carrefour had a special promotional display set up in the middle of the store for twin packs of Colgate. Normally I would consider it my lucky day and just throw one into the basket. However, this is Thailand so I checked a few prices first.
The twin packs were 'on sale' at the special promotion price of Bt89 but when I checked the regular stock I found that single packs were priced at Bt44. Mmmmm. That sounds like a good deal.
I decided to treat myself to some Toblerone which was also being promoted but there were about five different size bars available. The smallest bars were 35g and cost Bt20, or Bt0.57 per gram. The next size up weighed 50g and cost Bt38, or Bt0.76 per gram. Again, packaged in smaller quantities a product costs less in Thailand. I bought two small bars.
I have noticed this time and time again in Thailand from orange juice, through all kinds of food produce, to liquid bathroom floor cleaner. It makes no sense and is the direct opposite to what happens in the rest of the world where, if you buy in larger quantities, things work out cheaper.
Saving a Baht or two here and there is of no consequence to me but I do find myself doing a lot of mental arithmetic when I go shopping in Thailand.
There seems to be an awful lot of doom and gloom in Thailand at the moment among some local Thais, some resident farangs and some farangs looking to come to Thailand permanently or semi-permanently. I understand why but I sense some major hypocrisy going on.
Almost daily I hear grumblings from Western Europeans about the influx of Eastern Europeans into their countries and I hear the same thing from Americans, mainly about Mexicans. We like to have scapegoats to blame for the mess we are in and immigrants (legal and illegal) are a convenient target.
Now, what if there was a loophole in the law whereby any foreigner could move to England and stay there indefinitely (20 years or more) by just hopping over the Welsh border every 30 days to get a new passport stamp and then coming back? And what if there were laws to stop those people from working but they were never enforced so they just carried on working illegally with no fear of prosecution?
There would be outrage. This is what has been going on in Thailand for years and years and now that the Thai authorities have finally clamped down on what is an acceptable situation, some foreigners are upset. They shouldn't be upset, they should be feeling fortunate that they managed to get away with what they were doing for so long.
I have also heard that the legal loophole whereby foreigners can get around the law that prevents them from buying land in Thailand by setting up a company where they own 49% is also to be plugged. This little arrangement - which is (was?) perfectly legal - involves finding six Thai 'sleeping' partners (not the usual kind) who - on paper - own the other 51%, but split between them so that individually they are all minority stakeholders.
This allows the foreigner to be a majority stakeholder of a company without exceeding the 49% limit of total ownership. Once the company has been set up, the foreigner can then buy land and property in the name of the company but use it personally.
The law that prevents foreigners from buying land in Thailand is there for a very good reason and every foreigner in Thailand should be extremely grateful that it is there. If it wasn't, the whole of Thailand would have been purchased long ago by Europeans, Americans, Hong Kong Chinese, Singaporeans, Japanese, etc. who have a lot more buying power than most Thais.
Prices for everything would have gone through the roof and Thailand would not be the wonderful country it is today. But instead of feeling grateful, some foreigners seem to think that they are entitled to take advantage of these legal loopholes and that they shouldn't be closed.
The doom and gloom among the local Thais is a direct result of the Hat Yai bombings a few weeks ago. As expected, the Malaysian tourist business died an instant death. Not only are tourists not visiting to spend their money but locals with reduced incomes are cutting down on their spending so everyone is hurting.
The good news here is that when Thaksin was running the country, the situation was never going to get better. The coup leader is a Muslim who is widely respected in Thailand, as is the new PM. I keep hearing good things about both men from Buddhist and Muslim Thais. Both men are respected by civilians and the military, and already talks have started in the south which will hopefully lead to a cessation of the violence.
The only thing it is necessary to know to ensure peace of mind is that the people now running the country have the complete backing and support of the King. It isn't necessary to know anything else because there is no higher endorsement in Thailand.
There certainly hasn't been any lack of news recently in Thailand and recent events have resulted in some massive changes which will affect Thais and foreigners. Whenever major changes occur there is always an unsettled period for a while but in the long run I truly believe that 2006 has been a great year for the country and that this is a real turning point for Thailand.
Contrary to some reports I have read, Thailand is not being xenophobic. It has finally woken up to some serious immigration problems and has dealt with them. Foreigners looking to come to Thailand for holidays or to do legitimate business, or to work legitimately, or to retire legitimately have nothing to be concerned about.
The only people who will be affected are those who have no respect for any form of law or authority; who want to take all the time without giving back; and who want to live invisibly, being accountable to no one.
They know this isn't possible where they come from and shouldn't get upset just because Thailand has made an effort to come into line with more developed countries. Do not be despondent. This is good for Thailand.
A saying I have used elsewhere on this site is, "Nothing worthwhile having in life comes easy." Living in Thailand is still as worthwhile as it has always been but now it will take a little more effort than just arriving in the country and then making a border run every 30 days ad infinitum.
Monday 9th October 2006
Thai culture fascinates me. My Thai language skills continue to improve at a snail's pace but even though they are still woefully inadequate I can quite often pick up things that would have been completely lost on me even a short time ago.
The nuances of language are an integral part of the culture which is why I get mildly irritated with the bar-stool Internet 'experts' on Thailand who cannot read Thai and whose spoken skills barely surpass, "Sawatdii khrup," "Khawp khun khrup," and "Nit noi."
I was taken out to dinner by three Master's degree students a few days ago. I know two of them and I have a pretty good idea that the purpose of the dinner invitation was to try to coax me into tutoring them.
The student I didn't know was the kind of girl that Thai men go crazy about. She's studying to be a dentist, is very white-skinned (from Chinese grandparents), very high class and is not short of a Baht or two. She owns a fairly new car and was our chauffeur for the evening.
She comes from Korat in Isaan which was a reminder to me to try to curb the very bad habit I have of falsely stereotyping all Isaan girls.
If you have only met bar girls and think that Thai men are not interested in girls, that is wrong. They are very interested in girls but not the kind of girls that most farang men go for.
As we were driving to the restaurant, one of the students I know told the other one I know that the girl driving was the pii this evening. This came as quite a shock to me because I didn't realise that it was customary to do it as directly as this.
With any group of Thais in any situation, rarely is anyone of equal status. Certain people - by means of age, wealth, status in the community, position in a company, etc. - are deemed to be higher than others.
I realise that it is basically the same in Western societies but there is far more deference paid to people further up the feeding chain in Thailand than there is in Western countries. The first thing Thais who don't know each other will do when they meet is to try to establish the social hierarchy.
Until this happens, the meeting can't really continue because the polite forms of address aren't yet known. What I have found in the past is that a series of questions will commence and social status will be established based on the answers.
Age is an important factor which is why Thais will often ask, upon meeting someone for the first time, how old they are. It's a strange question for Westerners when first meeting someone but for the Thais there is a good reason.
Once everyone's status has been established, junior members of the group will address senior members as pii, and the address will be nong the other way round. This is just what happened on my evening out. First names weren't used, just pii and nong.
Well, that isn't quite true. As the token farang in the group, the pii/nong thing escaped me completely. This is another interesting thing about the culture. The importance of social status extends just to Thais and although farangs are treated respectfully, their position falls outside of that inner circle.
I was neither a pii or a nong, just a nothing - a farang - and I am never allowed to forget this in Thailand. Every day it is pointed out to me by complete strangers in the street who, upon seeing me, just remark, "Farang," and then continue on their way.
What is nice with Thai society and culture is that there is instant respect and social order. Many social problems in Western countries come about from yobs having no respect for anything or anyone else.
What I don't like though is that some people, one guy in particular who I had dealings with, who hold quite high positions in society (in the case I am referring to, a University head of department) adopt positions of superiority from this constant show of respect and proceed to treat everyone else like crap.
It's nice in Thailand that respect is given for nothing but to be maintained it does need to be earned.
However, getting back to my evening out. It was an unusual atmosphere to say the least. In very polite Thai company - which this was - the politeness can be quite stifling. As we all looked at the menu, no-one seemed to want to order anything just in case it wasn't a good choice with someone else.
And as we ate, there was no mention about me helping them with their English although I was quite sure this was the reason I had been invited. In the end, it was me who raised the subject. I suspected it was greng-jai coming into play where nobody wanted to say anything that may not have been considerate to someone else.
It was a strange evening which I guess would have felt even stranger had I not understood some of the cultural behaviour that was going on.
With this web site I have made the point repeatedly that Thai culture is not superficial. You don't wai at the beginning of a meeting instead of shaking hands in an attempt to overcome the cultural differences but then continue the meeting as you would do in the West.
The culture extends far beyond a few superficial gestures. It affects all facets of behaviour and has created a completely different value system. Let me make it clear that after three years of living in Thailand, I am just beginning to scratch the surface but if you plan on doing business, working or living in Thailand it is important to know about some of the cultural aspects that are going on around you.
Sunday 8th October 2006
My contempt for organised, god-based religions just continues to grow. I already regard myself as a Buddhist in my way of thinking (I regard Buddhism as a philosophy on life - not a religion - that does not have any idols or gods) but maybe in the future I will do whatever is necessary to make it official.
After the new Pope made inflammatory comments about Muslims recently (just to worsen an already dangerous crisis between the Muslim and Christian worlds) two more stories have caught my eye. They highlight just how ridiculous religion is.
The first has to do with the Catholic debate regarding limbo. Apparently Catholics believe that we are all born with original sin, which must be cleansed through baptism, and that the souls of those people not baptised go straight to hell after they die.
This belief was a bit of a problem though for Catholic parents of babies who died before they were baptised or who were stillborn. To get around the problem, a Frenchman (conveniently) came up with the concept of limbo (which is somewhere between heaven hell) where the souls of these babies could go.
They still didn't go to heaven but neither did they go to hell - which made their parents feel better - they went to limbo. So, the word of 'god' was changed by man and everyone was happy.
Now, apparently, the Pope is thinking about dropping the idea of limbo. Once again, the irrefutable word of 'god', which all religion is supposedly based on, is set to be changed by mortal man. This subject is being debated by supposedly intelligent men described as scholars.
What is the point, I ask you?
This could be debated until the end of the world (which, at the rate we are going isn't far away) but the conclusions will only ever be based on the beliefs of the people drawing the conclusions. It is something that can never be proven scientifically yet it is this kind of dogmatic belief which causes wars and conflicts. It's crazy.
I'm sorry but regardless of how much faith you have, the existence of a soul or where it goes (if it exists) after death will never be proven or disproven.
This is the one area of Buddhism that I have a problem with. Buddhists believe in a soul and they believe that at death the soul plants itself in a new embryo where it is born into a new being. This is how Buddhists explain such phenomena as child prodigies because they believe the skills of that child came from a previous life. I am still not convinced but I'm not going to start any fights or arguments about it.
The second story was about the wearing of the Muslim veil after comments by Jack Straw in the UK who said he would like to see the faces of Muslim women when they speak to him. I can understand that. I don't like it when people with completely opaque sunglasses speak to me without removing their glasses and I can't see their eyes.
Muslim women wear different styles of dress that cover varying degrees of their bodies. Some wear a simple scarf which covers their hair and neck while others wear veils and gloves so that no part of their body - including their eyes - can be seen.
And just as the Catholics have been debating limbo, the Muslims have been debating what is an appropriate style of dress for women based on the word of their 'god'. And just like the Catholic debate, it is a question that doesn't have an answer. But still, the issue continues to cause problems all over the world where Muslims live in non-Islamic countries and even in some Islamic countries.
Dan Brown got himself into trouble to suggest that the irrefutable word of god, as laid down in the bible, was edited rather heavily in the Middle Ages by the Catholic church who had ulterior motives for doing so. We know that only certain gospels were included and others were left out, for whatever reason.
Mel Gibson, another Catholic, backed the film 'The Passion of the Christ' to show people what really happened to Jesus. How does he know? How does anyone know? But these endless, unanswerable debates rage on causing conflict and deaths between people of different faiths around the world.
If anyone publishes material that can incite hatred they can be prosecuted and the material banned. I think we have more than enough evidence to ban all forms of organised religion and that would certainly be a good start towards world peace.
I feel strongly about this because I was let down by the system, as I believe many people are. Developed societies are good at turning out academically intelligent people who don't know how to find inner peace and contentedness (apart from the temporary happiness they get through alcohol which only makes things worse in the long run).
The education system in developed countries provides a good basic grounding in academic subjects but fails to properly educate people on the big picture and the nature of human existence. There are opportunities to do this but as far as spiritual development is concerned we are just sent to Sunday school to stand there and sing about how god made all things wise and wonderful.
By the time I reached my mid 30's, Western society had screwed me up and shortly after I was 40 I had to turn my whole world upside-down to find some more meaningful answers in life which society had not given me earlier on. Indeed, Western capitalist societies promote lifestyles that create unhappiness rather than deal with it.
Some basic education on the nature of the human condition without any religious dogma might result in better balanced societies and reduce some of the problems we see now, not making it necessary to monitor every public location with CCTV cameras and turning our schools into fortresses to protect our children. It might even help the radical fundamentalist suicide bombers whose minds are corrupted by extreme religious beliefs.
Instead, we continue to debate what happens to our 'soul' after we die and if it is appropriate for a woman to reveal her hands and eyes in public. Is it any wonder that the world is in such a mess?
Friday 6th October 2006
The jing-reed (the noisy insect I wrote about a couple of days ago that was keeping me awake all night) packed his little knapsack and departed today to continue his search for a wife.
As I was cleaning the terrace, I saw a grasshopper-like creature and called Iss to confirm that it was the source of the nocturnal din. She said it was and then made a grab for it; telling me she used to play with them when she was a child.
Generally speaking, the Thais have very different attitudes towards insects compared with farangs. They are pests as far as I am concerned (insects, not Thais) to be sprayed, zapped or squished. To the Thais they are either toys or food.
Yesterday evening I installed a Wi-Fi access point in my room so that both I and Iss - using her new notebook - can use the Internet at the same time. Computer networking has never been a strength of mine and I had a few deja vu moments as I sat there battling with a computer that wouldn't do what I wanted it to do.
Things have improved over the years and Windows XP was a big jump forward. This little task only took about four hours and not the two weeks it took me some years ago to connect my first digital camera via USB to the computer I was using at the time running Windows 98.
The main problem appeared to be that her machine has an Atheros Wireless LAN chipset but had Intel Wireless software installed. I did the Acer notebook driver updates but it still failed. Downloading the Atheros driver software from another PC manufacturer's site (Hewlett Packard) seemed to do the trick but the experience wasn't exactly satisfying.
My guess is that the notebook vendor she bought it from applies a standard software build which doesn't always match the hardware components. This standard build includes a lot of unlicensed software. Officially the machine is just sold with DOS to keep the price down but it came with Windows XP Professional and this seems to be completely normal in Thailand.
What surprised me was that Windows Update still runs even though there must be thousands of machines in Thailand running unlicensed versions of Windows XP using the same license key.
I installed a copy of Photoshop Elements 2.0 which came with my current camera but which I have never used. After installing it I discovered that the machine already had Photoshop CS2 loaded and this is not a cheap piece of software. I have seen CS2 on a lot of Thai machines.
It's not right but I can understand why it happens. The notebook was the equivalent of four months wages for Iss and licenses for all the software would double the price at least. I don't condone using unlicensed software but I can understand why every new computer on sale in Thailand has a lot of it pre-installed.
I expect that the situation will improve as the open-source movement gathers momentum. Machines will either start coming pre-loaded with open-source software or Microsoft (due to the competition) will change their business model.
My fully legal IBM Thinkpad was very easy to configure with no problems at all. A nice by-product of Wi-Fi is that it has made my room look a lot tidier. I have been able to completely hide the broadband modem, its bulky power supply and all the associated cables.
The only thing on display is the Wi-Fi access point box and the only connections to the computers are their power supplies. Everything now looks very neat.
Thursday 5th October 2006
It's official. I'm a fat bastard. This fact was verified by two separate groups of students today who pointed out my bulging stomach - just in case I hadn't noticed. Shyness amongst Thais may be a problem in English classes but they certainly aren't shy about telling other people they are fat.
I've noticed this a lot between Thais but this was the first time the finger has been pointed at me. Nobody seems to get upset though because it isn't considered to be an insult.
My expanding girth has been caused by Western food which I took the opportunity to tuck into while travelling last week. It's a real treat for me to get Western food in Thailand that actually tastes like Western food and not just a Thai approximation.
There are lots of great places to eat in Bangkok, of course, and I pigged out at the Italian restaurant in Chiang Rai called Da Vinci which had excellent pasta and pizza. Bread and bread products (including pizzas and bread sticks), although very tasty, seem to be the main culprits.
After a couple of weeks back on a rice diet, I'm sure my paunch will start to recede. The great thing about Thailand is that no one really cares anyway. The girls will mention it and have a laugh but unlike superficial farang girls, who are obsessed with appearance, the Thai girls consider other qualities to be more important.
It's good news for ugly buggers like myself.
A couple of months ago, a Thai guy introduced himself to me while I was getting lunch at the university canteen. It turned out that he was a professor of law working in the law faculty and had spent several years living in France.
He speaks fluent French and his English is pretty good too (even though he does speak it with a French accent).
I bumped into him again today and the recent coup was the main topic of conversation over lunch. He specialises in constitutional law and, being Thai, is very knowledgeable about what has taken place.
What I heard today gave me no cause to alter any of my views about Thaksin. The only difference was some of the terminology used. The three main terms were legality, constitutionality and legitimacy.
Someone wrote to me recently saying that if Thaksin had broken any laws then why had he not been charged in Thailand? Technically, what he did was legal within the constitution (which is now being rewritten) and public law. However, what he did was certainly not legitimate on moral and ethical grounds.
Anyway, I have done this subject to death so won't go on again, suffice to say that if you really want to find out about Thaksin, ask educated Thai people and not bar girls from poor backgrounds whose families benefited from Thaksin's populist schemes.
Wednesday 4th October 2006
The latest noise annoyance to affect me in Thailand is a natural one. An insect that Iss tells me is called a jing-reed has taken up residence just outside my room. It emits a 'chirrupping' sound constantly through the night that is a serious amount of decibels.
I haven't seen this particular specimen yet but I think I have come across these insects before. On a liveaboard diving trip in the Similan Islands a few years ago, and subsequently while in Khaolak, the air was filled with flying cockroach-sized insects.
The Thai kids treated them like little pets - or toys, catching them and holding them in their hands while they still chirruped away. Iss also mentioned that they are a popular delicacy in Isaan. The bloody thing kept me awake all last night and it started up again this evening as darkness fell. If I catch it I have no plans to add it to my diet but I may take some action to allow me to get some sleep at night.
The wet season (which it is now) is the worst time of year for insects. I am meticulous about keeping insect screens in place and my room is normally mosquito-free but yesterday I found - and squished - three that had somehow managed to get through my defences.
I also found a huge flying cockroach that had alighted on the outside of the insect screen. These huge, brown monsters are the stuff of nightmares. One got into the room last year and was flying around for a while before it was dealt with. I always make sure I have plenty of insect spray to deal with such situations.
Since I returned from my trip up north, I have noticed about three new sets of freshly painted road markings in the vicinity where I live that indicate recent road accidents. Accidents happen in a split second and the Thais are well practised at cleaning up the mess, which they do quickly and efficiently.
To actually witness accidents is not that common. It would be very easy for someone to spend a month - or longer - in the country and not see an accident and then to wonder what all the fuss was about. Don't be fooled. Even if you don't see any accidents, keep an eye out for the white markings in the road which the police put down around the outline of vehicles involved in accidents.
My Thai driving license expires at the end of the month and I have started making a few enquiries about what I need to do to get it extended. Iss knows someone who works in the relevant government department and he told her that more tests are being introduced in an effort to reduce the out of control traffic accident rate.
I can guarantee though that it will make no difference. The Thais will work out what to do in order to get their licenses but then carry on driving in exactly the same way. You only need to take a look at how they treat the crash helmet law.
It appears that no one actually believes that crash helmets save lives. If they did, then passengers would also wear them and not just the driver - who is only wearing one to avoid getting a ticket. It's not unusual to see helmets being carried in the basket on front of motorbikes and only put on if there are police around.
Often, they are worn without the chin strap fastened and it isn't unusual to see headwear that would be completely useless in an accident but it's good enough - apparently - for the police not to stop people.
The impression I get is that crash helmets are worn with resentment - because the law decrees they be worn - but for no other reason. Whatever additional driving license tests are created, it will make no difference until drivers accept the problem and change their attitudes.
However, as I said the other day, many Thais still completely deny that there is any kind of a safety problem on the roads and until they do so, they won't change their attitudes.
Tuesday 3rd October 2006
There has been a lot of coverage of the Thai political situation on the BBC News Site since the coup. A BBC article yesterday gave the views of a typical Thaksin grassroots supporter and it made for quite sad reading.
The guy is a northern farmer who works extremely hard for very little money - as do many poor people in Thailand. Social security only exists in Thailand for government and office workers; there is nothing for the people at the bottom of the social scale.
The Bt30 healthcare scheme (even if it is unsustainable in the long run), the village fund scheme (where cheap loans are made available to villagers), and Thaksin's promise to raise the price of milk by a few Baht are all things that have benefited this man and others like him.
They want Thaksin back and, had the coup not happened, their votes would have assured him another victory.
There are a couple of points I would like to make about this story. The first is that Thaksin, first and foremost, is a hard-nosed businessman whose whole life has been about making himself wealthy and nothing else.
When he took breaks - which he did frequently while in office - he didn't go to impoverished parts of the country to see how he could help Thailand's poor. He used to go to London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, etc to shop in exclusive department stores (which Bangkok also has now, of course).
On the occasions he did visit the poor, his style was to pull out wads of money from his pocket which he threw at people, rather than trying to understand their problems and work out long term, effective solutions. This is a man who never had any real interest in the poor apart from their votes and don't be deceived by his rhetoric.
The second point is that Thaksin was only able to do what he did by exploiting this failing in Thai society where there are such huge divisions in wealth and this is something that the new interim government and next year's elected government must address.
On my recent trip to Chiang Rai I started off in Bangkok where development has been going crazy for many years and it continues to go crazy. As I started to travel north though, it's just rice fields. They start to appear soon after leaving Bangkok and continue right up to the far north of the country.
Bangkok is leaping ahead into the 21st century and the fortunate sons and daughters of Thailand's middle-classes are being educated to take advantage of new opportunities but outside of the capital - save for a couple of exceptions - it is just a poor, agrarian society.
It doesn't make any sense to me. The growth in Bangkok is causing all sorts of problems with traffic congestion, pollution and waste management but little happens elsewhere. Thailand is a large country with a population of 60 million. By investing in education and industry elsewhere, it would ease the problems in Bangkok and lessen the rifts that exist in Thailand between the Bangkok elite and the rural poor.
This would not be an overnight task though; a minimum of fifteen to twenty years is a more likely estimate.
The most violent and problematic countries in the world are those that have big divides in wealth. Because of the wonderful culture of Thailand, violence is rarely a problem but if nothing is done to help the rural poor there will be more problems in the future and it shouldn't just be left to the monarchy which has been the only institution in Thailand to really help the poor in a completely selfless fashion.
Thaksin was being clever by exploiting this problem but he had ulterior motives. Some of his initiatives to help the poor were along the right lines though and future governments should make this failing a top priority.
Sunday 1st October 2006
I've finished the first draft of a new page following my visit to Chiang Rai last week. I will probably add to it later but for the time being there are a few photos and some of my initial impressions.
I heard news of yet another motorbike fatality today. The five year-old niece of a girl Iss works with was killed yesterday while being driven on her father's motorbike. The Thais carry very young kids in front of them when on a motorbike rather than behind on the pillion.
In the three years I have lived in Thailand I have seen thousands of tiny kids on motorbikes but I can count on the fingers of two hands the number I have seen wearing crash helmets. Crash helmets for children are available but obviously 99.9% of the population regard them as unnecessary.
After hearing this we went out to eat and there were small kids everywhere on motorbikes. Since I arrived in Thailand I have either seen, heard about or met someone who has been involved in a motorcycle accident at least once a week.
Several Thais I know - including Iss - have nasty scars on their arms from motorbike accidents. Unfortunately, when it comes to head injuries, the result is rather more serious than a few broken bones and a scar.
It doesn't matter how carefully the parent is riding the motorbike. Many Thai males drive like lunatics with no regard for other people's safety. All it takes is for one of them to hit the bike; the kid goes flying off and lands on its head; and that's it. Curtains.
I am fully aware that I have done this subject to death but the senseless loss of life of thousands of innocent people every year - in this latest case, a five year old child - is something that the Thais have to address.
Every now and again, I am asked by a Thai why I don't ride a motorbike. My answer is that they are very dangerous in Thailand. The Thai will then tell me that they aren't dangerous. This is something I find strangely puzzling because every Thai living in Thailand is guaranteed to know lots of people who have been injured in motorbike accidents and quite a few who have died.
With all this evidence around them, why then do they continue to deny it is dangerous? And this is a major part of the problem. The government can launch as many road safety campaigns as they wish but if the general populace don't believe it is dangerous, they will continue to do stupid things on the roads and continue riding around without crash helmets.