thaithanic

Eighteen months or so ago I was booked on an overnight flight from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport to Melbourne, Australia. The flight was aborted shortly before takeoff because of a hydraulic system malfunction and passengers were accommodated over night in a hotel while the aircraft was repaired.

At breakfast the next morning I was quite taken aback by a young British woman’s response to my comment that I had been living in Bangkok for a number of years. She looked aghast and exclaimed, “How could anybody choose to live in city like this? It must be the most terrible place on earth.”

I countered that there is much more to the city than meets the eye of the traveller on a short visit, and that although I lived in a busy part of the city my mornings and evenings were filled with the noisy chattering of birds, and at night there was often just an amazing stillness.

My condo is only a couple of hundred metres from one of Bangkok’s busiest thoroughfares, but my street and the adjoining one have no through traffic. Consequently, the raucous Bangkok that the tourist usually encounters seems light years away. Bangkok can really be a pleasant and convenient place to live for those who do their homework.

This hotel conversation with my fellow stranded air passenger came back to me this week when I admit that I was more than a little surprised to find a snake of almost one and a half metres cautiously exploring the length of my tenth floor balcony. Wow, I thought, wildlife abounds in central Bangkok! I managed to get a couple of photos.

My Bangkok Condo Snake

I’m not sure of the species; it was long and thin and dark in colour, and in no hurry. I think it probably was on the look out for pigeon eggs or some such delicacy. After thirty minutes or so it had disappeared into the twilight and, as is usual in tropical climes, the darkened hush of evening had descended.

I thought how pleased I was that I had installed insect screens to the doors and sliding windows. No doubt my impressions of the pastoral serenity of inner city Bangkok would have changed to horror had I found the reptilian egg hunter between my sheets!

Wildlife in the City

Over the past few years I have met a large number of Thai people who have had an opportunity to study or work outside of Thailand and combine this with travel. It is an ideal way to improve English language skills, and those who actively seek out interaction with native English speakers can show an amazing improvement in a short period of time.

Short term work and travel opportunities are sought by many Thai university students during the long break, and a special visa class for this type of visitor makes the United States of America a popular choice. Students find that by working they can recoup the entire cost of their trip and often save some money as well.

Other popular destinations for Thais are New Zealand and Australia. Australia provides generous opportunities for combining study and work, with student visa holders permitted to work in paid employment for up to 20 hours a week.

Many people use agencies in Thailand to handle all the arrangements and place them in work or educational institutions. These agencies typically can arrange visas, international and domestic travel, and arrange accommodation or home stays.

Although most people I have spoken are enthusiastic about experiences abroad, a fairly common criticism is that they did not receive adequate advice about the options available before they left Thailand.

I know of one student who wanted to undertake a Master of Applied Linguistics degree at an Australian university. At an education fair in Bangkok a couple of years ago she was advised that such programs are not widely available and probably would not suit her. She was strongly advised that an MBA program would be a better choice. However, not to be dissuaded from her goal, this student found an appropriate linguistics program and is making excellent progress in a difficult area of study, even for native speakers of English.

Situations such as this may occur because the larger agencies sometimes employ consultants who may not have travelled, studied or worked abroad, or who are unfamiliar with the diverse opportunities available in the destinations they are promoting. In such cases, the advice received by the prospective student or traveller may be skewed. Also, in some instances, agencies may not have local representatives in the destination countries.

Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting a Director of ISKILL Education Australia, Cindy Khamniyom, who has just opened an office of her company in Bangkok. Cindy is a registered migration agent for Australia and her company can provide advice for prospective students, find suitable educational programs or work opportunities, organize travel and accommodation and arrange all aspects of the visa and paperwork.

Cindy has years of personal experience living, studying and working in Australia and her business also has an Australian office in Sydney. I am sure that Thai people looking for opportunities to study or work in Australia can approach her with confidence that the advice and service they receive is based on a genuine understanding of the needs of Thai people in Australia. With an office in Australia, as well as in Bangkok, support for clients is always on hand should difficulties arise.

The ISKILL Education Australia website is at http://iSkill.com.au, and Cindy can be contacted in Bangkok at:

Central World Level 29
999/9 Rama I Rd, Pathumwan
Bangkok  10330
Tel: 022072419    Mobile:  0838902639

After a few visits to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport in the past week, both as a traveller and to pick up visitors, it appears to me that the moves by the government to stop the harassment of arriving passengers by touts has been largely successful.

Also, the new office of the Ratchathewa police station adjoining the Tourist Police Office in the arrivals hall near Door 3 looks resplendent and was fully-staffed each time I passed by. The office was opened last month following complaints of extortion of apparent duty-free shoplifters and innocent shoppers who were taken off-site where outrageous demands for cash were made to secure their departure from Thailand.

I was asked a couple of times outside of the airport building on the fourth floor if I wanted a taxi when I was heading to pick up a taxi that had just deposited departing passengers, but at no stage was I approached inside the terminal building. This was certainly a far cry from the ‘old days’ when arriving passengers were surrounded and harangued by unlicensed taxi drivers, tour operators and limousine services. All in all, arrival now is a very orderly affair.

I notice that the Bangkok Post’s reporter Amornrat Mahittirook, the person who a few weeks ago ‘broke’ the uncorroborated story of the alleged attempt by an authorized airport taxi driver to over- power a woman in his cab by some kind of gas, is writing a series on the government’s airport crackdown. As is often the case in news stories in Thailand, numbers do not seem to matter. On Sunday September 6 Khun Amornrat informed readers that

…more than 600 people had been caught at the airport in the past two months for various offences.

In the past two months, 395 unlicensed taxi drivers and 210 illegal our guides who exploited travellers…have been arrested…, the AoT (Airports of Thailand – the body responsible for the airport’s administration) reported to cabinet last week.

In today’s Post (September 9), the numbers have doubled and we learn from Khun Amnorat that

A special security team at Suvarnabhumi airport has arrested 750 unlicensed taxi and limousine drivers and 405 illegal tour guides in the space of just one month, officials say.

Whatever the numbers, it seems from my own observations, that the crackdown is having a positive effect. Also, despite Khun Amnorat’s observations, taxis with arriving passengers are are not allowed to stand for more than a couple of minutes, and their area for setting down and standing is severely restricted.

Perhaps now the government can move also to dissuade the AoT from actively pushing its own over-priced limousine service on arriving passengers. Also, the AoT should be forced to erect signs so that all visitors to the airport can find and avail themselves of excellent Thai food-court-priced dining, hidden away in a corner of the lower-ground floor, rather than having to eat at the clearly sign-posted and expensive food outlets near the departures area.

In a case of the pot calling the kettle black, the Bangkok Post editorial today (September 2009) attacks a Thai government minister Sathit Wongnongtoey for applying pressure on MCOT radio anchor Chom Phetpradab to resign after he broadcast an interview with ex-prime minister Thaksin on MCOT radio station FM100.5 last Sunday afternoon.

According to the Post’s editorial writer

The minister’s attack on the programme reveals a two-faced policy on freedom of the press by this government…

and

…Mr Chom deserves better than losing his job to a vindictive politician answering his party (Democrats) instead of his public accountability.

…MCOT is a company accountable to the public, not an arm of the government propaganda machine..

…Mr Chom may have broken station rules in airing the interview…but this is an internal matter, and not for Mr Sathit to get involved with….Mr Sathit would serve the government and Thailand better than to place criticism and censure on the actual interview, rather than seek to punish one interviewer.

The editorial writer claims that MCOT is a company “accountable to the public.” Anyone with knowledge of business should understand that a company’s prime accountability is to its shareholders, and not to the public. Seventy-seven percent of MCOT’s shares are in the hands of the Thai government’s Ministry of Finance, so it would seem proper that the government should have a major say in what the company broadcasts. If in fact the radio anchor also did not have company permission to broadcast the story, his credibility should be subject to scrutiny.

The Bangkok Post itself, not a government media outlet, a few years back bowed to intimidation from then prime minister Thaksin and actually sacked a senior editor Sermsuk Kasitipradit and forced the resignation of  editor Chadin Tephaval because Thaksin objected to the Post’s criticism of the standard of work at the then soon to be opened Suvarnabhumi airport.

Sermsuk was reinstated in July 2007 after a court found he had been unfairly dismissed by the Post. So just how free was the country’s press under Thaksin?

In this current case, the media organization concerned is controlled by the government. Minister Sathit is not just “a vindicative politician, but a government minister in the Prime Minister’s Office. He is responsible to the government, which whether the Post agrees or not, is the way the political system operates.

The Bangkok Post continues to give publicity to former prime minister Thaksin, including recent front-page coverage of his Twitter ramblings. And what is significant is that, under the present government, it has the freedom to do this. I really don’t think we can argue that MCOT has the same level of freedom, being as it is a largely government-owned entity.

It’s nice to think the Bangkok Post provides opportunities for aspiring authors, but the editorial team really should monitor the quality of what is published.

On Sunday August 30, the Post’s Brunch Magazine had an intriguing cover, ‘Love You long Time Yeah, Right Buddy! Why Farang Men Think Asian Women are Fair Game’, by Rikke Bjerge Johansen. Page 6 made it clear that this was indeed the cover story, although now sporting a new name: ‘The Fever of Love: Forget the swine flu – We need a cure for farang with “Rice Fever.”’

Well, what a huge disappointment! In this poorly crafted piece, a young woman of mixed Danish and Korean heritage, relates how she has frequently been approached by men since she arrived in Thailand twenty months ago – and (despite the story’s title) not only farang or Caucasian men, but also Thai men. Surprisingly, she tells us that she has only discovered this type of male behaviour in Thailand.

Her story is full of stereotypes – her boyfriend is worried that ‘people think of (him) as just another loser farang with a cute Asian girlfriend’, and there’s the Bangkok counsellor with a Scandanavian name who works with farang men who explains that farangs here exhibit behaviour that “they would never do in another country” (although conveniently he has nothing to say about why Thai men are, in the writer’s words, “not backward in coming forward either”).

The story peters out with some snippets from a Thai girl who has been propositioned, not surprisingly, when visiting a girlfriend who works in a Nana hotel, an older French man who asked a 32 year old office worker for her phone number, another Korean-Danish girl who inanely questions her identity (Korean?Danish? or Thai?) since living in Bangkok, and a young woman who relates how a polite man gave her his name card and asked for her phone number and called her later, and how she doesn’t mind if people are “polite”.

Ho hum, what is this all about? What a waste of coloured newsprint, and an insult to Post readers!! We just seem to have normal stories here of men trying to hook up with women. With respect to both the writer and her expert farang counsellor, this doesn’t happen only in Thailand. It happens to women all over the world, of all races, and more so to especially pretty girls.

For some badly needed balance, how about a follow-up story asking Thai women living abroad about their experiences with foreign men trying to hook up, or how about what Thai women think about being propositioned by Thai men and the whole Thai dating scene? Many Thai women are more than happy to share stories of their experiences, and why they are interested in meeting foreign men.

In last Sunday’s Bangkok Post, columnist Voranai Vanijaka is back to his old theme of how to make Thais more questioning of their society and its cultural mores, and how to allow the nation to become more developed and competitive.

When, during a lecture to some master’s degree students at an unnamed university, whom he believes to be “some of the brighter minds in the Kingdom,” he finds they don’t know the name of the governor of Bangkok, Khun Voranai feigns shock. It is obvious that these are not master’s degree students in political science, however, he doesn’t seem to appreciate that there is no logical link between being bright and knowing the name of Bangkok’s governor.

Likewise, there is no logical link between not knowing a governor’s name and not asking questions of teachers, so consequently his subsequent argument that students don’t know anything because they aren’t taught to question (and that this is manifested in the slowly developing, problem-ridden Thai society) collapses on a false premise.

Next, he pompously seems to delight in relating how a professor of economics ‘from a prestigious university’ became ‘heated and agitated’ because Khun Voranai ‘asked him questions that were contrary to his beliefs and made him stumble and become lost for words; questions that questioned his authority’. Voranai surmises that the professor didn’t like to be challenged by somebody younger and was displaying behaviour symptomatic of the problem besetting development in Thailand.

It would be useful to know what Khun Voranai asked or suggested in the interview; it is highly likely that the professor was dismayed by Khun Voranai’s lack of knowledge and understanding and responded appropriately. For example, as a political commentator, Khun Voranai’s musings in the Bangkok Post over the past few months shows he has a very limited understanding of the concept of democracy. And without any information to the contrary, we can only presume that he has no real knowledge of economics, either.

Yet using his two examples, Khun Voranai writes hundreds of words arguing how the problems besetting Thailand’s political and economic development have their roots in the core belief and cultural superstructure of Thai society – greng jai.

Amazingly, however, Khun Voranai relates proudly how the passive ‘wide-eyed and silent’ (and ill-informed) master’s students, by the end of his mesmerizing performance, were actually able to pose questions and voice opinions. What an amazing feat after just one lecture!

You can, it seems, resolve the manifestations and implications of greng jai in Thailand and fix all the problems besetting Thailand if you simply “allow opportunities for everyone around you, everyone that you meet, to express themselves and question everything around them.”

Really this is a recipe for anarchism, but it certainly is in keeping with Voranai Vanijaka’s earlier published anarchistic views on democracy.

I was saddened to read of the death in Bangkok on Sunday of Scots expatriate grandmother Lydia Riach who suffered head injuries after being the victim of a bag snatch in the vicinity of Sukhumvit Soi 22 the end of August. I offer sincere condolences to her husband, family and friends.

There has been a great deal of discussion of the incident on the Bangkok expat web boards and blogs, Thailand’s English language online news sites, such as Pattaya Daily News http://www.pattayadailynews.com/shownews.php?IDNEWS=0000010293 and in the Scottish press http://news.stv.tv/scotland , together some unsavoury and vitriolic exchanges between locally-based English language ‘reporters’ about how the ’story’ has been handled.

From the news reports, I understand Mrs Riach’s handbag was grabbed by a cowardly pillion passenger on a passing motorcycle. Her bag was worn over her shoulder and across her chest, and she was dragged some distance before sustaining severe head injuries. Police have indicated they have a witness and are confident of an early arrest.

After reading of the incident, I decided to post and to suggest that to avoid a similar tragedy it may be prudent not to wear a bag attached across the body, precisely because if it is grabbed without warning by a fast moving thief, there is a strong possibility that the surprised wearer will topple and fall. To avoid possible targetting and injury, a bag should either be a properly worn backpack, which generally would not attract attention from motorcycle thieves, or be held in one hand on the side of the body opposite to passing road traffic.

I had the personal experience of my bag being snatched from my hand by a pillion passenger on a passing motorbike in Lad Phrao district four or five years ago. I was totally taken by surprise and the thieves were gone within seconds. Fortunately I was not injured and, despite the constant tales of woe we hear about the ineptitude of the Bangkok police, I have nothing but admiration for how they dealt with this theft.

Within a few weeks I was telephoned to come to a local police station to identify the bag and, if possible, to identify the culprits. At the station I found another eight or so people, all Thais, who had had bags stolen in a similar manner by this gang of two. The bags had been recovered from a nearby canal, after they had been emptied of anything of value to the thieves. I was able to retrieve my reading glasses, but two mobile phones had already been disposed of.

As the incident had happened at night I could not positively identify the two handcuffed young men sitting just metres from me at the police station, but I’m sure some of the pair’s other victims were able to do so.

It is extremely common for people in Bangkok to wear their their bags strapped across their chest, and while this may offer some protection from street assailants, it certainly has potential dangers if walkers are targetted by thieves on motorcycles.

I hope Bangkok police quickly apprehend the perpetrators of this crime which has had such a tragic outcome in taking the life of the late Mrs Riach, and such devastating consequences for her husband, family and friends.

We often hear the comment that, when compared with the West, human life is cheap in Thailand. This truism was brought home to me once again when I read the Bangkok Post issue of Friday, 14 August.

Tucked away on page 4 in the InBrief section of national news was a ninety word item under the heading: Student Murdered

The brief report caught my attention because I know the area where the attack took place well. It is a very public place; a heavily used pedestrian thoroughfare across busyLat Phrao road between shopping complexes.

SCHOOL RIVALRY: A student at Dusit Technology School has been stabbed to death by students of a rival school in Bang Kapi district. Thirapon Nonsap, 18, was confronted by a group of students from a rival school while crossing a footbridge opposite the Bang Kapi branch of The Mall department store, police said.

The students chased Mr Thirapon and stabbed him with a knife before fleeing.

Mr Thirapon sustained several severe cuts to his head and body. He died on his way to hospital, police said.

My condolences to the Mr Thirapon’s family and friends.

In my own country this would be a major news story and would quickly be analysed by education authorities and investigative journalists.  In Bangkok, in the English language press at least, this is the last we will hear of the incident.

Over the years, the rivalry and violence between students at Bangkok vocational schools has been reported and perhaps the Post is tired of it, preferring now to beat up stories about bad taxi drivers.

But how can this type of behaviour – especially murder – by the city’s youth be allowed to continue? It is a major issue that must be addressed if Thailand is to continue on its a path to ‘development’.

I have sensed first-hand the community concern about the potential for such incidents when I have caught public buses after school hours. It is disconcerting to see  police and security officers supervising every movement of vocational students to prevent violence in the immediate vicinity of the schools.

It really is time for authorities to stamp this out. They need to ask themselves what is being taught within these vocational schools? Surely some kind of values education programs to foster socialization need to be incorporated in the curriculum.

One contributing factor to the tacit acceptance that student violence goes hand-in-hand with vocational education  may be that these schools sit at the bottom of the educational prestige ladder in Thailand. This is a country where  manual work is denigrated.

Vocational studies is the lowest possible educational calling for Thais, and issues of poor student self-esteem are certainly part of the task confronting authorities.

If technicians and manual workers were to receive salaries commensurate with their training and skills, the stigma of being a vocational student would surely disappear and the poor social skills of this stigmatised sub-stratum of Thai youth would become a thing of the past.

Furthermore, if a shortage of skilled workers led to increased competition for vocational study places, a vocational education would be valued and student feelings of self-worth would increase.

Regrettably, any change in attitude in the short to medium term will be difficult to achieve within the highly regimented hierarchial society that exists today in Thailand.

Fugitive former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s publicity machine keeps him constantly on the front page.

And once again the Bangkok Post dutifully falls into line and does its part in making sure that although he has gone, he has not been forgotten.

Today we learn from the Post’s reporters, who unquestionably are avid Facebook and Twitter fans, that Thaksin

divorced his wife Khunying Potjaman at the Thai consulte in Hong Kong in November last year to protect his family.

According to the Post, he told his Facebook audience

… in my heart I still feel married and only divorced to save my wife and her family the shame and trials of actions against myself.

Unbeknown to Thaksin and oblivious to the shame, his ex-wife and family are working tirelessly to promote his new Puea Thai party, while at the same time distancing themselves from direct involvement in the red shirts’ pardon petition to His Majesty The King.

If people really want to know about this Thaksin ‘heartspeak’ nonsense let them read his page on Facebook or his Twitter tweets or perhaps join his other 13,359 Twitter followers.

But, please can ‘the newspaper you can trust’ spare us from this “news”?

On second thought, I might just make enquiries about following him on Twitter. If his previous form in garnishing support is anything to go by I may well receive some personal pecuniary benefit by also being a Thaksin Twitter follower.

In the news recently there have been a number of distressing stories about the deaths and injuries to elephants in apparently preventable accidents.

An online article, Two Elephants Die and One Injured Through Human Negligence, in the Pattaya Daily News provides details of a number of these incidents in eastern provinces.

Pung Paweena, electocuted in Chonburi. Source: Pattaya Daily News

One of the elephants, Pung Paweena died by electrocution near a Chonburi park. Pung Paweena was owned by the same Surin owner as Pung Kumlai, the elephant that died recently at the Chonburi Elephant Hospital.

We had the misfortune of seeing the injured Pung Kumlai lying in a deep ditch beside a mountain road in Sa Kaew province on May 29 this year on a return trip from Buriram province. In that accident, following brake failure descending the mountain, the truck carrying Pung Kamlai to Chonburi province overturned. Tragically, a handler travelling in the truck died in the accident and others were also injured.

Miraculously, however, Pung Kumlai survived the truck accident with broken front legs. She was assessed as having an excellent chance of recovery and cared for at the elephant hospital for a couple of months until she recently died of an unrelated digestive condition.

The other accidents referred to in the Pattaya Daily News article include another death by electrocution, Plai Ekchai, and a narrow escape for a young elephant, Plai Pu, who fell through an ill-maintained drain cover in Rayong.

Plai Plu, Rayong. Source: Pattaya Daily News

Currently the cute baby panda at Chiang Mai Zoo, Lhin Ping, has gripped national attention, but the plight of Bangkok elephants is also receiving attention with the city council buying street elephants from impoverished handlers for rehabilitation at an elephant centre.

Elephants play an extremely important role in the history of Thailand and a symbol of the nation’s cultural heritage. As the writer of the Pattaya Daily News states,

More care is needed and irresponsible people (must be) held accountable if elephants are to be able to live out their lives as Buddah intended.