Thailand - People Page 2
Underestimating The Talented Thais
While shopping in Tesco Lotus I heard some beautiful Spanish classical guitar music being played. There is nothing that Thais can't do if they put their mind to it.
A very talented Thai classical guitar player
There are excellent Thai doctors, musicians and I have even seen a Thai lady on TV singing Italian opera just like an Italian soprano. When they put their mind to it and are motivated they can do anything.
However, what you tend to notice is that everything they do has first been thought of and carried out elsewhere. Thais are incredibly talented at copying and following what other people have already done.
The magicians who rip off other conjurers' tricks
The Thai magician in this report took the entire act from another magician and copied it. Thai doctors are fine, but every operation and procudure they carry out has been pioneered elsewhere.
It is the same with everything. Thais can copy anything, but it is very unusual for anything new or innovative to come out of Thailand. The problem can be traced back to the education system, which concentrates on memorisation and rote learning at the expense of critical thinking.
Thais At Work
Not all Thais are lazy, but I've taken the liberty of having some fun taking snaps of Thais asleep at their work place. They like to sleep and could probably beat my cats in a sleeping contest.
Thais have an amazing ability to sleep anywhere at any time
The work environment for many Thais is quite different to the one I am familiar with in the West. I don't know much about office work or working for large international companies in Thailand, just what I see on an everyday basis.
Thais say they work hard but it is not like working hard in the West for many of them. There is no doubt they work long hours, ridiculously long hours in fact. In shops they might start at 8am and finish 12 hours later on a quiet day.
This is a common sight in Thailand anywhere outside of Bangkok
On busy days they will work until there are still customers around - sometimes until midnight. For Thais not working in banks, the civil service or similar organisations, weekends do not exist. Every day is a work day. Massage girls might get three days off a month, say on the 5th, 15th and 25th or the 7th, 17th and 27th. Other workers appear to get time off at the discretion of their boss but days off are not assumed or taken for granted.
At times it is first necessary to wake up the vendor if you wish to buy something
The very fact they are at work so much can be tiring but while they are at work they are not necessarily doing very much. It's not like the West where everyone has to be busy all the time, or at least, seen to be busy. For a start there is chronic overstaffing in most places.
Wages are generally low so employers can employ more staff and if workers are being paid on a commission only basis an employer can employ as many as he likes at no extra cost. I have seen tiny counters selling mobile phones or something that are barely large enough for one person but there will be five sales assistants.
In May 2005 the official daily minimum wage was Bt175 and the government wanted to increase it to Bt233. The government of Yingluck Shinawatra pledged to raise it to Bt300. Even though these are the official figures, this is Thailand where workers don't exactly have a lot of rights.
Many of the jobs don't take a lot of brain power and the pressure from bosses to get work done quickly is not there so the mental stress that Westerners suffer from doesn't really exist. Thais might be at their workplace most of the day but only a small proportion of the time is spent working.
If there aren't any customers around creating work it's not like the West where bosses will find other activities to keep employees busy. The Thais will eat, talk, read, watch TV. It is not at all unusual to see them slumped over their desk or sales counter asleep. Quite a common sight, actually. Thais have a remarkable ability to be able to sleep anywhere, on anything, in any position, with all manner of noise and activity going on around them.
Thai streets are normally very noisy but this doesn't stop Thais from sleeping
The Chinese Thais are quite different. They are hard working, industrious and own many businesses in Thailand. Any gold shop you see in Thailand is most probably Chinese owned as are many hotels, shops and other businesses. Etnic Chinese Thais are motivated by material possessions, the accumulation of wealth and the conspicuous display of this wealth. They look after themselves and are quite insular.
This isn't just in Thailand, it is a Chinese trait and can be seen in the Chinese wherever they live. Many Chinese businesses are family run which keeps money in the family and outsiders are excluded. The education of their children is important in order to give the next generation the best chance of making lots of money to continue this lifestyle and support the parents when they get old.
Thai security guard
Ethnic Thais have a different set of priorities. They like an easy life, want to be happy, content and comfortable (sabaay) and want to have fun (sanook). This outlook is understandable, but it can be frustrating when you want something done. I would therefore be very reluctant to attempt any kind of personal business venture in Thailand for this reason (and other reasons).
Thais make big personal sacrifices in order to earn a living. They go where there is work and often this is at the other end of the country so they leave their families and friends behind. As I've already stated they work exceptionally long hours every day of the week with little time off, and for small salaries.
Roadside seamstress
Labour is cheap so a lot of work is done by hand. There are big factories but there are also thousands of one-man and one-woman operations. It's really nice actually. Getting repairs and alterations done to clothes, for instance, is never a problem.
The quality of workmanship is excellent and it's very cheap. One woman who I asked to repair a hole in my pocket wouldn't even charge me because the repair only took her a few minutes. She stopped what she was doing and repaired my pocket there and then. I'd never expect that to happen in England.
Early Accounts Written By Foreigners In Siam
The following extracts come from the book 'Foreign Records of the Bangkok Period up to A.D. 1932' (Office of the Prime Minister - no author, no ISBN) and are quoted here verbatim.
"The men who are engaged in their usual inglorious campaigns, acquire habits of idleness which are never afterwards corrected, and consequently the support of these drones, and of the enormous mass of the priesthood, falls entirely on the women.""Indeed, in speaking of the physical laziness of the Siamese lower classes it must be understood to apply only to the sterner sex, for the women are genuine workers; and yet they do not seem to transmit their aptitude for work, whether inherited or acquired, in any degree to their sons. It appears only to be continued in the female line."
"The arsenal was filled with cannon and muskets, rendered useless by rust, and, owing to their invincible indolence, they never gave themselves the trouble to clean them."
"In Bangkok all the hard labour is done by Chinese. The coolies in the rice meals and in the private houses of the Europeans, those who make and mend the roads, who pull the jinrickshaws, carry burdens, and water the streets, are all Chinamen. Hard work of this kind no Siamese would look at. Not that it is beneath his dignity; he is not too proud, but simply too lazy."
"The sons of the Celestial Empire play a very important part in Siam. The fact is that the real inhabitants of the country are so lazy and unenterprising by nature, that as a rule they will do no work, preferring to sit idly chewing betel or holding a cigarette between their betel-blackened teeth. All trade and industry is therefore in the hands of the persevering Chinese, who do not despise even the hardest work."
"The mines, on the other hand, are worked by Burmans, who, though they too have a considerable reputation for laziness, would almost seem to yield the palm in this respect to the Siamese."
"What then, it may be asked, do the Siamese do? Nothing, if they can help it."
Sleep
I was having a laugh looking through an Internet dating site for Thai women. The site boasted that none of the girls (almost all of whom were from Isaan) had ever been bar girls, but this claim was very doubtful judging by a few of the photos.
A motorcyle taxi driver doing what Thais do best
The descriptions described charming and demure young ladies who were fed up with unfaithful Thai men and just wanted an honest foreign man to love and take care of. Age, looks, existing children, bad habits, prison records and psychopathic backgrounds weren't important. Just send $80 to join and $4 for each e-mail sent and received.
What gave me the biggest laugh though was that one of the sweet young things listed sleeping as one of her leisure activities. It really is a national pastime.
On several occasions I have asked a Thai what they plan to do on their day off and they tell me sleep. And they mean it. Young Thai school children have scheduled sleep breaks at school. If you walk past a traditional Thai school at around lunchtime you will see lots of sleeping children.
The Land of Nod
Officially the sleep breaks disappear when they get older but the habit is difficult to break and Thai students of all ages will just fall asleep during lessons. They have a remarkable ability to sleep at any time, any place, anywhere - even in what appears to be the most uncomfortable of locations.
On bus journeys do you see Thais looking out of the windows enjoying the scenery? No, the curtains get drawn and everyone goes to sleep. If sleeping was an Olympic event, Thailand would have more than its fair share of gold medals.
So, so they sleep more than other people? I'm not sure they do but they have completely different waking hours. A quick survey of some of my students revealed they went to bed around 2am or 3am which accounted for why they always looked like zombies for a 10am lesson. Thai students do not like early starts.
Many Thais get up very early, especially if they are involved with selling food at fresh markets, and sleep later during the day. Some lead almost nocturnal existences. While I work and play they sleep and while I try to sleep they stay awake all night drinking, talking, singing and playing music very loudly.
A visitor to this site sent me the following anecdote.
"A Thai woman tried to have a doctor arrested because the drugs he prescribed made her condition worse rather than better. He gave her instructions to take two before sleeping. The only problem was that she slept seven times a day!"
The Chinese
Thailand has policies in place regarding land purchase and employment to protect Thai nationals from the threat of a foreign invasion but it is rather a case of having shut the stable door after the horse has bolted.
The Chinese have already cleaned up in Thailand and they have done a pretty thorough job. Ethnic Chinese Thais run the government, most businesses, hotels, shops (lots of gold shops), money lending operations and just about everything.
As a race, their emigration from China has been quite remarkable. From having nothing in China they have gone all over the world, worked hard and prospered. They assimilate well into other cultures but nowhere better than in Thailand. Many second and third generation Thai-Chinese speak only Thai, no Chinese, and most foreigners would have a hard time distinguishing Thais from Chinese in Thailand.
Chinese in Thailand have Thai names, which may not seem a big deal to most Western tourists because all Asian names sound foreign, but this is the equivalent of Chinese in England being called John Brown or Tom Smith. How weird would that be? The Chinese assimilation in Thailand is like no other country on earth where Chinese have settled.
At one point, when nationalism was rife in Thailand, they were discriminated against but now they pretty much run the country. They are very protectionist with their wealth and often quite ruthless in how they run their businesses.
My relationship with Thai-Chinese is mixed. Their education and general intellect is more like I am used to in the West and there are situations where I find it a lot easier getting things done when dealing with Chinese.
However, they are business people and it is money that drives them. Just like Chinese everywhere, they can be friendly if they think you are a potential customer, but decidedly rude if you show no signs of parting with your money. If you actually owe them money, things can get very uncomfortable.
They have their own distinct culture which in some ways is quite contradictory. The Chinese, in general, have terrible attitudes towards the environment. It's not only dam projects in China; their love of killing endangered species for medicine and for the dinner table is legendary. The contradiction is that because they are generally well educated they are more aware than most of the harm these activities have on the environment and wildlife.
In Thailand there is no escaping the Chinese. It's not like some countries where Chinese immigrants just live in certain neighbourhoods and the local Chinatown. In Thailand, Chinese Thais can be found everywhere.