Stickman Readers' Submissions November 15th, 2011

Happy With Life

The article regarding the Holy Grail of Asian Girls tends to convey much more about the author than the girls that this individual has met. At 32, he is still very young and probably has the same ideals as many who work for the various non government
organisations (NGOs). How can we address world poverty? How can we solve the European debt crisis? How can we stop these dirty farang coming to Thailand for sex? Well, to be honest, many of us like the Thai girl who spends time on Facebook, do
not really care. And it is not because we do not feel compassion for those suffering in Greece or Spain or Italy but because the reality is we can do very little about it all. We know that on the world stage we are nothing. No-one from the G20
is calling us up to consider our economic theories and whether Keynesian economics is right or not in this current situation. I am sure you bear no friendship with Angela Merkel or Jean Claude Junker and so any ideas you have about Europe, although
you may think are interesting, really are going to have no impact on the world stage.

I have met many people like the author of this article and sometimes they are the most depressed, boring people themselves. They can't just sit around and gaze at the river, like the Thai girl, and appreciate its beauty. They can't
be like his current girl who gets on Facebook and is thankful they have some friends who love and care for them. Girls who realise that their lot in life is fairly simple and may always be so but in that they are happy. Many of the 'do gooders'
in the world sometimes end their lives in despondency. They realise that there will always be corruption at senior levels of government and this is hardly going to change. There will always be mongers visiting Thailand. Again this isn't going
to change. Go out and try to make the world a better place for sure but maybe realise that there are many of us who quite like this life. I have worked in the corporate finance world for many years now and love the fact that on weekends or holidays
I can just 'escape' the world. At those times I have no interest in reading about the next global financial crisis, floods in Thailand, Iran possibly being invaded or any other world event. The only thing that concerns me at those times
is my own peace and mind. Many times the next thought is where I can get a decent beer and check out a good looking girl. Whether refugees are having trouble getting on to the boat in Indonesia to go to Australia is not something that concerns
me. It might concern the Australian Foreign Minister but I am not him. I am sure it is not you either. And for the Thai girl the chance of her being the Australian Foreign Minister and ever having to concern herself about boat people is a likely
as her becoming Queen of the Nile.

He Clinic Bangkok

Maybe they are speaking to you in English because your Thai isn't that good. For many of my Thai friends they revert to English as I mispronounce many words. They figure it is easier for me to hear and speak English and is why they revert
to it. It isn't out of laziness. In fact it is out of respect for me. But once again you seem to reflect on how things impact upon on you and your perception of the situation. I am truly beginning to wonder whether these girls have turned
on to Facebook as they think "for heaven's sake, I just want to relax! I am struggling to pay last week's rent and all you want to talk about is the history of world politics". Do you realise how boring this is in and of itself.
Maybe it is time to reflect on your own world and that the boring person is the not the girls you are meeting but it is in fact you.

So relax, young man, and chill out. You might find by doing so you will soon realise how tiny your impact is on this world and that really you will probably have little to no impact on world events. It is sobering once one reaches that point.
I am not saying you aren't important as a human being. You are, we all are. But many have come and gone before you and we still have poverty, AIDS, disease, famine, suffering, persecution and the like. It has been this way for millions of
years and alas I say maybe for millions more. Some of us just make our own little patch of the world the best we can and hope for the best for our family and friends. Some of us have enough problems with the life struggles that come our way that
we don't have time to worry about the things you do.

Now on to other things. What does interest me is the impact of the European Crisis and other countries around the world on tourism in Thailand and consequently pricing. For many months I had been concerned about the rise of Thailand in the
world economic scene and the fact that prices were increasing rapidly. Forcing many who had made Thailand their home out of it. However I think things could be due to change. I suspect over the next year or so we will see a drop in the numbers
coming to Thailand as the government pensions that they have relied upon will be cut and austerity measures are going to make things very difficult for those living in the EU and ultimately across in the US. Will we finally see prices start to
drop in Thailand as demand starts to outstrip supply? Or will our Chinese friends make up for this if their economy continues to improve? It has certainly been an interesting past year and many changes have occurred that we didn't think would
have occurred.

CBD bangkok

Stickman's thoughts:

In reply to the final paragraph only, I fully expect to see MORE visitors flock to Thailand, more people choose to retire here, prices to rise and the country to slowly become more and more expensive. The country is developing and all of this should not be unexpected!

nana plaza