Thailand - People Page 3
Muslims
Thailand is predominantly a Buddhist country but in the deep south there is a big Muslim population. They are nice people generally and want nothing more than other people in the world, that is to raise their families and be happy in life. Yes, their faith is important to them but it is to many people in Europe and North America. It's just that theirs is a different faith.
The Muslim people should not be involved in any situations causing unrest, and all Muslims wish to see Thai Muslims live in peace
Apart from a brief spell working in Saudi Arabia in 1982, my stay in southern Thailand has brought me into contact with more Muslims that at any other time in my life. One of the great things about Thailand is how different groups all get along so well together. People are just people - Muslim, Thai or Chinese, it makes no difference.
There are no government campaigns reminding the population how well they get along (just in case they forget and start rioting) as there are in Malaysia and Singapore. It is perfectly natural for everyone in Thailand to get along with the exception of a tiny minority in the southernmost provinces. I have Thai friends from all the different ethnic groups.
Since the September 11th attacks it seems that the Muslim world has been demonised by the West and Western press. Images of Islam are never balanced in the media. Why is it that all we see on television of Muslims are fanatical bearded men and veiled women carrying pictures of Osama bin Laden while burning American flags and copies of the American Constitution?
Only this week (May 2005) there has been a repeat of those images following allegations of prisoner abuse and copies of the Koran being flushed down toilets at Guantanamo Bay. There are far more moderate Muslims than radical ones but obviously moderate Muslim behaviour isn't as newsworthy.
These negative images don't do anyone any good. All they do is create hatred and there is already enough of that in the world. For the record, I have no allegiance to Islam and I have all but renounced the Christian religion I was born into.
As far as I am concerned, god-based religions have been the cause of more problems in the world than anything else, and they continue to cause problems. This is yet another reason I find myself turning to Buddhist philosophies which are human-centred and respect all other religions.
One of these women is a Muslim and the other one isn't (a woman)
For as long as people worship different gods there will always be conflicts. To hear American generals on their return from Iraq telling Americans that, "Our god is a proper god and their one is an idol," is sickening. We are all part of the same race and philosophies that concentrate on our 'humanness' (which is common), rather than gods (which differ according to faiths), make a lot more sense to me.
A constant media feed of negative Islamic images after September 11th began to adversely affect my attitudes towards Islam despite the fact I hadn't even come into contact with any Muslims. That is the power of the media. Living in southern Thailand has enabled me to get a more balanced picture.
I think that balance is very important in life. If you get a chance to visit southern Thailand, try to meet and talk to some Thai Muslims. You may arrive with certain preconceptions but after a few smiles from Muslim children you might go away having to rethink your attitudes.
One more point about Muslims in Thailand and that is you may not even know someone is Muslim. Not all the women are veiled and not all the men are bearded. What's more, they don't have horns or anything. Many just look like Buddhist Thais and some of the Muslim girls are very attractive.
Update July 2005: London has been hit by terrorist attacks and suddenly the entire Muslim world is bad again. The offenders haven't been caught yet but undoubtedly they are extreme Muslims. These indiscriminate acts of terrorism against innocent people trying to live their lives peacefully and honestly are vile and wicked. The offenders, when caught, should be hung by the neck.
However, what alarms me when these things happen is how suddenly every Muslim is bad. On one supposedly responsible and well moderated Thai Internet forum there were people asking if the attacks were committed by "ragheads".
This disgusting racist and inflammatory comment was apparently perfectly acceptable to the guy moderating the board and was left in place. While these attitudes exist nothing will ever get better.
The North-Easterners
When I used to visit Thailand as a naïve tourist, when I thought that all Thais were equal, I wanted to visit the northeast. The reason was simple. It seemed that almost every pretty girl I met came from that region. I was intrigued and wondered what they put in the water up there to produce so many good looking females. It wasn't until many years later that I managed to make a visit to the northeast, otherwise known as Isaan, or to find out the truth of the situation.
Thailand is divided into four regions (paak). The southern peninsular is known as pahk dtai, the central region including Bangkok pahk glaang, the north pahk neua, and the northeast pahk Isaan.
Customs and dialects vary enormously in each and are influenced by the countries they border. The southern provinces are influenced by Muslim Malaysia and to some extent, Indonesia. The north has influences from southern China, people from Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai having fair skin and Chinese looking features.
The north-easterners have close ties with what is now Laos but was once a part of Siam. It is the poorest part of Thailand with little industry and poor soil. There is of course no coastline so there is no wealth to be made from fishing or tourism.
It's an area that is pretty much neglected by both Thais and tourists. The central and southern Thais are (how shall I put this?), quite condescending about north-easterners. Many refer to the area, Isaan, as if it were a foreign country and Isaan people as if they were foreigners and not Thais - khon Isaan.
The bulk of Thailand's investment in infrastructure goes into Bangkok but Chiang Mai, being an important tourist centre and the home town of the PM, also sees government money. The south is fairly wealthy from tourism, rubber, fishing, fruit, etc. The one region that sees little government investment and does not have the resources to generate its own wealth is the northeast.
As a result, there has been massive economic migration within Thailand as north-easterners have moved to other parts of the country for work. Because the people have not been able to afford a good education, and because of the way they are looked down upon by other Thais, they don't end up getting good jobs.
Construction work is common and many of Thailand's Commercial Sex Workers (CSWs) are from Isaan. There is a lot going on in Bangkok with plans to extend the Skytrain and subway systems and all of this is being done using cheap labour from Isaan. On a recent visit to Khaolak I found it is mainly northeasterners that are reconstructing the area after the tsunami.
Typical accommodation for construction workers in Thailand, many of whom come from Isaan
Further up the coast in Ranong I spoke to some building workers constructing a new temple. They were from Buriram and lived in shanty accommodation on the site made of wood and corrugated iron. Their bathroom, toilet and kitchen was a small area of the site with two large containers of water.
The skilled men made Bt250 a day while everyone else received just Bt130 a day. Entire families were living there including toddlers who treated the construction site as a playground. I spoke to them for about 45 minutes and saw how they were living. They were all very nice, friendly people with no grievances or any sense of being hard done by.
Just across the road from where they were working was a newly constructed house built for someone who was obviously quite wealthy by Thai standards. The contrast of seeing a magnificent house just yards away from people living in corrugated shacks was startling and something I have difficulty coming to terms with.
Construction workers' corrugated shack in the foreground and large private house in the background
I mix with university professors when I work but I also make a point of talking to Thailand's poor. It is not to patronise them but because I have a genuine interest in their lives. Being poor is not a crime and I do not look down on poor people. However, I am aware of Thai attitudes so don't mix my associations with Thais of differing social backgrounds.
The impact Thailand's poor people had on me as a visiting tourist was a major reason for me coming to Thailand. Their sense of happiness in life despite a lack of material wealth was something I wanted to understand after having material wealth but not being happy.
Many of us should count our blessings in life but all we do is feel sorry for ourselves. There are times when it is good to see what other people have to face in life to remind ourselves that actually we are pretty well off.
Even some Thais seem to lose track of reality at times. Some of the workers I have just written about earn Bt130 a day. When I have been for a massage and give the girl a Bt100 tip, more than doubling the Bt80 that she gets from her employee for providing the massage, and she complains about me being kee-niaow (stingy) I feel like taking her to meet other Thais who really have something to complain about.
Southern Thais
As is the case in many other countries, there are differences between people in different parts of Thailand. Southern Thais don't always get the best press. Opinions I have read range from 'unfriendly' to - in the case of Nakhon Sri Thammarat natives - 'criminal and murderous'. These opinions normally come from people who have never spent any length of time in the region.
Generally speaking, southern Thais (along with Bangkokians) are wealthier than northerners or northeasterners. The soil and climate are good, allowing a lot of fruit and rubber to be grown. Phattalung also grows a lot of rice.
Young southern Thai traditional dancers
Fish stocks are plentiful with two seas either side of a narrow strip of land, and in the last 30 years tourism has brought a lot of money into the economy. Lots of Chinese have settled in the area and they brought with them the famous Chinese work ethic.
This wealth has made the natives a lot more independent and free-thinking but these are traits that are sometimes construed as unfriendliness and arrogance. Personally, I quite like the honesty and straightforwardness of the southern Thais.
The south, of course, is home to the majority of Thailand's Muslim population. The Muslims do tend to keep to themselves but it is just a cultural thing and they are not at all unfriendly once you get to know them.
Nakhon Sri Thammarat was once an independent kingdom. The Malay Peninsula used to be under the suzerainty of Srivijaya and the entire region has a rich cultural heritage but this has been played down by the ruling bodies in Bangkok and central Thailand. As one of my southern Thai PhD students told me, all he was ever taught about Thai history at school was how wonderful Ayuthaya was and how evil the Burmese were.
Defiant Males
Most Thai men are fine but some can be a bit problematic and this is due, I believe, to a combination of cultural factors. Being a strictly hierarchically-based society, some men higher up the social scale can be extremely arrogant. Thaksin was a supreme example of arrogance
Young Thai punks
Thai males do not like to be put on the spot, stood up to, or questioned by anyone they consider to be lower than them in the hierarchical social scale. Thai Prime Ministers can get very defensive if they receive questions that they don't like.
When Jonathan Head of the BBC interviewed Samak, Samak started off trying to be amicable but as the questioning got tougher you could see him getting visibly irritated. He responds by telling the interviewer rather patronisingly, "You don't know me. I forgive you for this question."
On the contrary, I suspect that Jonathan Head knows more about Samak than most Thais. What this interview also highlights is that Thais don't like hearing criticism from foreigners. It's not overt, but under the surface there is quite a strong racial superiority complex among Thais.
This doesn't apply to everyone though. I've met and had a one-on-one chat with Chuan Leekpai, twice Prime Minister of Thailand, and he comes across as a very modest and humble man.
A few years ago, I had problems with a landlord who was a university head of department. He had a massive superiority complex and thought he could take advantage of me as a tenant. When I stood up to him he didn't like it one little bit and the relationship turned sour very quickly.
I've only had this problem with Thai men and I think it's because Thailand is still very much a man's world. Political correctness never arrived in Thailand and even though Thai women might do most of the work and keep the country running, it is the men who hold all the positions of power.
It's not only a problem higher up the social scale. Thailand is the 'Land of the Free' and doing what you want to do and not being questioned by anyone is a big part of the Thai male psyche. Once again, Thais take particular exception if it is a lowly foreigner who tells them what (or what not) to do.
I've had issues with young teenage boys who are naughty and disruptive in class and won't accept being told off by a mere farang. They just stand and stare back in complete defiance.
I've also had problems when, as a pedestrian, I've made comments to kids on motorbikes who have almost hit me as a result of deliberately ignoring traffic lights.
In both cases it is the Thai male who has been in the wrong but they don't like it if another person says anything, especially if that someone is as insignificant and lowly as a farang.
Another example is smoking. If a Thai man wants to smoke inside a building it doesn't matter if there are other people eating nearby, or whether the walls are plastered with 'No Smoking' signs, he will smoke and he won't appreciate anyone telling him not to.
This is one of those things that may seem surprising to tourists but after several years of living in Thailand you start to see a slightly different side to the characteristics of some of the people.
Children
'Siamese attitude towards children'
The following comes from an account titled 'Siam in the 20th Century' written by J.G.D. Campbell in 1902. It was published in the book 'Foreign Records of the Bangkok Period up to A.D. 1932'. I couldn't agree more with his words, and what he says is still very true today.
"The natural kindness of the Siamese also comes to light in their treatment of their children. One of the most pleasing sights, among much that is squalid and ugly in the streets of Bangkok, is to see not only the mothers, but also the fathers carrying in their arms and fondling their little soft-eyed, brown-skinned children, who have at that early age a distinct attractiveness.You rarely come across any evidence of harshness or unkindness, so that one thinks of our own East End children, and what they often suffer at the hands of drunken and brutalised parents, and asks whether we are after all so much more civilised than they. It is no less pleasing to find the attachment of parents to children equally marked among the upper classes, and even among the most exalted in the land."
The kids of Thailand are a real joy. Here are two of my favourites, my friends' children. I think that the general environment in which they grow up is a lot healthier than the West in general terms. They are not wrapped up in cotton wool like their Western counterparts and made to think that every strange person or situation is a threat to them. As a result they normally grow up into fairly balanced people who do not have lots of anxieties and fears. They are left to their own devices a lot of the time and keep themselves amused. Although some are addicted to online games such as Ragnarok many are amused with old fashion toys and games, reminding me somewhat of my own childhood. At times I appear to be more concerned about them than their parents but of course this isn't true, it's just because I don't understand the environment as well as the parents and I apply Western thinking.
I found a wonderful article on the BBC News Web Site titled 'The problem with paranoid parents' which sums up my feelings exactly as to how children are being brought up in the West these days. Paranoid parents are indeed creating lots of problems for their kids in the future.
I taught this girl a few English phrases before she embarked on a tour of the UK to demonstrate classical Thai dancing
They are curious about the world, as most kids are, and curious about strange looking farangs. Young kids often stare at me as I walk past. My response is normally to stop and say hello. What is really nice here is the reaction of the parents. They genuinely seem appreciative that someone is paying the child some attention. In the West if I did this, as a single male, the reaction would be entirely different and quite unpleasant so I wouldn't do it.
Nan, pictured here, is nine years old and I gave her some informal English lessons. She does Thai classical dancing and went to dance in England in July 2004. She is bright, attentive and keen to learn. She was a joy to teach actually. I didn't want any money for the lessons but her parents run a fruit shop and always gave me gifts of fruit. Youngsters like Nan give me a lot of hope for the future of Thailand.
This group of kids followed me wherever I went on my visit to Isaan
Of course, parents in the West will tell you that no child is safe these days but statistically there is nothing to back this up. Throughout history there has always been a very small minority of sick individuals who have preyed on children. Nonetheless, most kids in the Western world today get taken to and collected from school in a 4WD vehicle each day and are not allowed to talk to strangers.
I realise that these comments may upset some people. That wasn't the intention. There is nothing to equal the love of a parent towards a child and of course parents will do everything they can to protect their children. All I am trying to say is that children should be protected from real threats but not cut off entirely from meeting strangers. The vast majority of people in this world would never dream of hurting a child and most of us are programmed in our genes to like and protect children. Perceiving everyone outside of the immediate social circle as a potential threat isn't an entirely healthy attitude.
Thai children are not neglected. On the contrary they are looked after very well but what they have in their lives is balance. I like the way that most parents make a big effort teaching the children manners from an early age. If I say hello in Thai the kids are prompted to give me a wai and a 'sawatdee dii khrap' or 'sawatdee dii kha'. In Thai society children owe a big debt of gratitude to their parents for bringing them up and therefore show a lot of respect. They also show a lot of respect to other adults. It's very nice to see and so refreshing after encountering some spoilt Western brats.
Are Thai children more open to abuse from sick people? I don't think so. As I said, although they aren't completely sheltered from the world they are watched over for threats such as this. I think that the West has so much to learn from this country. Unfortunately it isn't going to happen. What is happening is quite the reverse. Instead of the West learning from the Thais and adopting their habits, Thai children are starting to suffer from the ills of the West. Junk food is making them fatter while TV and computer games are making them lazier. Still, the big Western corporations need to make their profits somehow, don't they?
Orphans
Thais love children but Thai culture (as in other Asian countries) is very strongly oriented towards the family. In cases where children have been abandoned by their parents, or their parents have been killed in a car crash (which happens frequently in Thailand), they are often brought up by their grandparents or other members of their immediate family.
Orphans at the Songkhla orphanage
I have not yet met any Thais who have adopted children from another family whereas I know people from my own culture who have. At the Songkhla Babies Home, where I met the children in these photos there were photos on display of foreign couples who had adopted a child from the home.
The home looks after new-born infants and children up to the age of 19. Some are born with HIV and some with other illnesses or deformities. For one reason or another their parents weren't able to bring them up so they were put into care.
Orphans at the Songkhla orphanage
Meeting the kids at the orphanage is always a very emotional and rewarding experience. They have nothing in life materially, but when you look at some of them they have everything.
Societies today only measure the success of people by their wealth and material possessions. Among all the accolades for Lee Kuan Yew after his death, there were also a few voices of criticism along these lines. Singapore is a very successful country on the surface, but its 5 C's culture is quite unhealthy.
Thailand continues to go the same way - and there are many extremely greedy Thais - but it is still customary for all males to ordain as a monk for at least a week, and part of that process is remouncing money and wordly goods while in the temple.
When the material world starts to get to you, nothing is better than spending some time with those who have nothing, for example, monks or orphans.
Skin Colour
Thais vary in skin colour from quite dark (though not as dark as the darkest Indians or Africans) to whiter than many white Caucasians. Northern and ethnic-Chinese Thais tend to have fair skin, while southern Thais have darker skin but of course there are lots of individual exceptions.
Adverts for whitening products constantly target dark-skinned Thais
Human beings simultaneously have the largest brains and smallest minds of any creature on earth. The obsession in Thailand with skin colour and skin-whitening products is one such example. The obsession with fair skin in Thailand also has a lot to do with the other Thai obsession of social status.
Before the Industrial Revolution, Britain was an agrarian society and therefore most people worked outside in the fields. This resulted in them developing tanned skin. Working in agriculture was regarded as peasant work and the mark of the peasant was dark skin. Those who didn't have to work in the fields strove to keep their skin milky white.
Later on when jet travel became affordable and Britons started having holidays abroad, it became fashionable to start sporting a sun tan. With most people working indoors and looking anaemic, a sun tan told the world that the owner could afford holidays abroad.
Thus, within a few hundred years the fashion had reversed 180 degrees all because of personal vanity and the human propensity to show off to others.
Despite quite a lot of industrialisation and Thailand achieving the title Newly Industrialised Country (NIC), Thailand still retains a lot of agriculture - and being a tropical country it is very hot.
Just like the UK hundreds of years ago, dark skin is the mark of the rural-based peasant farmer in Thailand and no one wants to look like a peasant farmer. Meanwhile, millions of foreigners arrive at Thailand's beaches each year and one of the major items on their itinerary is to return home with a sun tan. Crazy, isn't it?
Westerners spend their hard-earned dollars on vacations in hot countries, sun-bed sessions and tanning lotions, while Thais shun the sun and spend their hard-earned Baht on whitening lotions.
For Thai girls there is nothing worse than a sun tan
Many Thais I know won't go out in the sun as they say they will go dum (black). If they have to go outside they will use an umbrella as a parasol or anything that comes to hand to protect them from the sun's rays. They refer to dark-skinned Thais as 'very black' (dum-dum), which of course they are not - they are just a darker shade of brown.
This is not uniquely a Thai notion, but an Asian one. Asian men coming to Thailand for women always prefer the light-skinned girls. Thais believe that farangs prefer dark-skinned girls. I try to tell them that some people may have this preference but to many it is of no significance.
Many photos I have seen of Thais have been heavily edited to make their skin tone several shades lighter. Facebook users in India have access to a Facebook application that will do the same thing - India Facebook users urged to 'appear whiter'
While watching Thai TV soap operas (something I try to avoid doing because they are painfully bad), I noticed that the colours looked really weird. Natural elements, such as trees and flowers, were just wrong. I am convinced that Thai soap opera makers mess with the colour purely to give Thais white skin.
Who benefits most from this obsession with white skin? The campaign in India, of course, is being driven by a large cosmetics company that makes skin-whitening lotions. As usual, the only thing anyone is ever inyterested in these days is making money.
See also: India's unbearable lightness of being
The picture above is of a promotion event at a local department store for the latest 'skin-whitening' product. Clearly the girl pictured in the advert is not even Thai. What's the point of trying to make people want to be something they are not? The point is about making money by creating, then exploiting, human psychological weaknesses.
The advertising companies are very good at this, and the cosmetic companies make a fortune selling skin-whitening products in Asia while, at the same time, selling sun oil and fake tan lotions in other parts of the world.
I used to think that the skin-whitening products were completely ineffective but that isn't the case. They do contain ingredients which bleach the skin over time. The effect isn't very pleasant though.
I've noticed lots of Thai girls with different coloured faces to the rest of their bodies. That in itself looks weird, but what is worse is that the whitening effect is hardly attractive. It results in a deathly grey pallor reminiscent of an embalmed corpse.
Skin whitening advert in Singapore
I feel immensely sorry for dark-skinned Thai girls, such as my wife who is from southern Thailand. Whenever they watch TV, open a magazine, or simply go shopping, they are constantly bombarded with the psychological message that white skin is beautiful and dark skin is ugly. Every single commercial break on Thai TV has at least one ad for a brand of shampoo, and one for a skin-whitening potion.
Over many years of hearing this lie, they start to believe it. They buy skin-whitening products (which is exactly what the cosmetics companies want them to do), but what is more damaging is that their skin colour starts to seriously affect their self-confidence.
In certain professions - those ones that are regarded as being privileged jobs, such as air hostesses - you will never see dark-skinned Thai girls.
With every job application in Thailand a photo is required, and with certain jobs dark-skinned girls won't even get invited for an interview.
Just watch some Thai TV for a while and you will see what I mean. If you only ever experienced Thailand through watching Thai TV programmes and commercials, you could quite easily believe the natural skin colour in Thailand is milky white.
Thailand is an incredibly prejudiced country - as are most Asian countries. Even though so-called political correctness has gone too far in other countries, the concept is completely foreign in Thailand.
Thailand is everyone's favourite holiday destination after a two-week holiday in Phuket, but after you've lived in the country you will start to see lots of things that are clearly wrong.
In addition to skin colour, racism, sexism and ageism are also widespread.
Luuk Kreung
After discussing children and skin colour it brings me nicely on to luuk kreung. Luuk is the Thai word for son or daughter and kreung is half. When I was a boy it was OK to say half-caste but now that is politically incorrect so we might say mixed-race.
In Thailand luuk kreung are normally a result of a Thai mother and a white Caucasian European or North American father. This is for obvious reasons but occasionally a Thai man will procreate with a farang girl to get the same result.
Where do you see luuk kreung, you may ask? Just turn on your TV set in Thailand. Almost every presenter, newsreader and soap star will be a luuk kreung. Several popular singers also have mixed parentage including the lovely Lanna Cummins who can be heard singing on Thai radio and seen in TV commercials for the M-150 brand energy drink.
The biggest joke is that it is luuk kreung who advertise the myriad skin whitening potions advertised in Thailand. They explain how this particular brand of lotion has contributed to their white complexion whereas I suspect it has a hell of a lot more to do with the genes from their Swedish fathers.
May 2005 I spotted an on-line news article about how China has banned actors and actresses from promoting health and cosmetics products in commercials. This is a wonderful move and a real step forward. China should be congratulated wholeheartedly and their example followed by other countries.
I am sick to the back teeth with the constant lies people are fed by beautiful people who get paid to lie. Apparently one of the first commercials to be pulled in China featured an actress who claimed that a drinkable calcium supplement made her young 'son' smarter and taller. Commercials for these supplements that supposedly increase the IQ of children air regularly in Thailand also.
Luuk kreung are worshipped like gods in Thailand and once you start to understand the way Thais think it becomes obvious why. The Thais are a pretty mixed up bunch. They seem quiet and modest on the surface but beneath that exterior rages a fierce sense of national pride and patriotism. They are not bothered about going abroad for holidays as most only want to go to other areas of Thailand. They love Thai food, Thai culture, the Thai language, Thai music and their own royal family with a passion.
However, many of the things they now worship come from abroad. They swoon over German Mercedes cars, Finnish Nokia mobile phones and English football players. They also like farang physical features - taller bodies, more prominent noses and, of course, the all-important lighter complexions.
The luuk kreung phenomena allows them to get the best of both worlds. I have had a few offers to father children in Thailand and with one girlfriend it was a constant battle to avoid getting her pregnant (she succeeded on one occasion but that is another story).
In Thailand, children are peoples' pensions and insurance policies later in life when they get old and can't take care of themselves. If those children happen to be very attractive luuk kreung it is likely that in superficial, beauty-obsessed Thailand they will have a much better chance of being successful in life and that can only be good for the parents.
It follows then that many Thai girls - especially the poorer ones - want children with a farang father. Men beware.
One luuk kreung you don't hear too much about in Thailand is Tiger Woods, the son of a Thai mother and black American father. He is arguably the most successful and famous international sportsman in recent history so why do the Thais not make a big deal about it? Once you begin to understand some other Thai attitudes regarding race and skin colour this also starts to become clear.