Stickman Readers' Submissions November 6th, 2008

Proud To be Thai?


Yesterday I was chatting on MSN with one of my long term Thai female contacts. During the brief “how are you? I’m fine, and you?” conversation, she stated she was “Proud to be Thai” then she suddenly accused
me of being a sex tourist! (which I’m not) and called me a “farang motherfucker!” Then went offline. WTF??

Goodness me! What is actually in these people’s heads?

He Clinic Bangkok

So it got me to thinking…proud to be Thai eh?

Let’s try and analyse that shall we?

Racking my brains, I can’t think of any scientific, academic, artistic, musical or literary achievements or world changing medical procedures or discoveries or inventions that Thailand has contributed to the civilised world in the
last millennia…no Nobel Prizes, no Literary Prizes, no Academy Awards…not even a mention in dispatches over the last few centuries. So, nothing to be proud of there then…

CBD bangkok

So just what has Thailand accomplished for herself and how does the rest of the civilised world perceive this fair land? This L.O.S.?

To most of the rest of the world, L.O.S. = Land of Sex = Land of Scams.

Smiles on the surface, but underneath the false smiles, behind the mask, lies the true Thai personality…

The following is a quote taken from the book “Letters from Thailand” by the Chinese / Thai author, Botan…

wonderland clinic

“Yet people praise Thailand as a land of peace, of endless smiles and yellow-robed Buddhist monks; of people whose culture is deeply ingrained, and who follow the five moral precepts faithfully. Yet I have seen men kill and torture
animals here in ways I had never conceived of before. They raise a kind of fish whose only reason for living is to tear each other to pieces before cheering spectators. The people love cockfights, ox fights, fish fights – any fight! They steal
and gamble, and lie with each other's wives.

The famous Thai smile is only frosting on the cake; what the cake is like, only those who have tasted it know. Thailand's greatest admirers are those who have spent two days in the country, mostly foreigners who have no idea of what
life here really is. They nod wisely and say that the Thai "really know how to live" and "know the value of an easy life". They do not guess to what extremes of laziness and irresponsibility this philosophy is carried, or how
great is the disregard for order and civilized behaviour.”

In Buddhism, the 5 moral precepts, the rules of behaviour accepted by the Buddhist laity, are… to vow to refrain from:

1. Taking life

2. Stealing

3. Sexual promiscuity

4. Lying

5. Drinking alcohol (which may lead to lack of control and breaking the other four).

I cannot think of one Thai national, and I know a great many of them from ALL social structures, who lives up to these precepts.

Of course the same could be said of anyone of any faith, but here we’re discussing the “Holier than Thou” Thais.

Thai people lie as a norm, it’s endemic. They lie to each other, to their friends, their family, their boss, their employees, their customers. They lie in their business dealings and in every other walk of life…

Corruption and being “economical with the truth” is rampantly endemic in government, business and Thai society as a whole.

Example: My girlfriend’s mother has bought another apartment because she’s due to retire soon and can’t face the prospect of living everyday in the same house as the grandmother who likes to complain etc…so she’s
bought another apartment and has told the grandmother that soon she has to work and live in the province somewhere or another.

The parents are divorced but still in regular contact, but no-one knows exactly where Dad lives. They know the general area in the city but not the actual address because for whatever reason, he doesn’t want the family to know.

This is a regular, so called “middle class” Thai family, mother is an English teacher, Dad is semi high up in one of the main banks, both brothers have very good jobs in the field of computers and my girlfriend is a university
teacher.

So much for the “closeness” of the typical Thai family unit!

Upon arrival to the L.O.S. visitors are scammed, lied to and cheated from the moment they transit airport immigration by touts scamming taxis and limousines.

Visitors are scammed and lied to at the grand palace and other tourist areas, scammed and cheated by many street traders, shops and businesses, and the bar scene is another story altogether…

But there must be SOMETHING to make the average Khun Thai proud?

Sure, Thailand has some beautiful scenery, beaches, mountains etc…but no more so than many other countries in the region..

The main reasons why tourists come to Thailand are the weather, the relative low cost of food, hotels, shopping etc (well, used to be) and for the abundance of inexpensive and readily available sex for sale.

Thailand is known all over as the sex capital of the world…would that make YOU proud to be Thai?

And on that particular subject… The Thai Public Health Ministry recently released figures showing that 75 per cent of Thai men sleep regularly with prostitutes, while 44 per cent of teenage boys pay for their first sexual experience.

Many Thais are fully aware of this, but it is also a fact that a lot of Thais simply don't want to know.

So based on these figures it would seem that Khun Farang is NOT the biggest whoremonger here.

Hmm…Not so nice when confronted with the truth is it my proud Thai friend?

Or maybe it’s just the Public Health Ministry lying to us again… Hmm, yeah, that’s probably explains it…

Someone once said…”Ignorance is not not knowing, it’s not wanting to know”.

As a population, Thai people on the whole are generally lazy and unreliable, they have little if no morals, at best they will look on you as a strange curiosity, at worst (more times than often) as a walking ATM, and no matter how long you
live here, no matter how much you contribute to either the local or your adopted family’s economy, you will never be fully accepted or truly integrated here.

Thais are openly and downright racist towards their fellow countrymen if they have a darker skin, live in the provinces or are of a certain perceived different class.

Thais seem to lack even the basic moral fibre and integrity that should be a requisite of any decent progressive society.

Thais truly and arrogantly believe they are the be all and end all, the centre of the earth.

The “mai pen rai” and “mai son jai” attitude that abounds here sometimes makes me beggar belief!

Proud to be Thai??

If it was me…I’d be embarrassed!

Stickman's thoughts:

This is really quite damning. The difficult part is that it is hard to argue against it!

nana plaza