anti falang feeling

[shygye]

quote:

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Originally posted by flyonzewall:

How would you feel if hords of Japanese come to your country and create places like Pattaya?

[ August 07, 2001: Message edited by: flyonzewall ]

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I thought it was the German Mafia that built up Pattaya.

[Guest]

Shygye,

Fyonzewall is just giving an example by asking rhetorically, what if the Japanese (meaning foreigners, a different race) came and built a Pattaya in your country.

Who did build Pattaya? American GI's turned the former fishing village into an R&R resort; this of course attracted traders and hookers, and afterwards the tourists came, attracting even more traders and hookers. It became a meeting point of men who wanted to get laid as much and cheaply as possible and women who'd eagerly provided this service for a few Deutschmarks or Dollars. Many of the early Pattaya tourists (say in the 70s) were indeed German, but Pattaya as we know it was certainly not "built by the German mafia". Those gentlemen came later to avail themselves of the plentiful business opportunities which had arisen.

As for what Pattaya is today, they're all equally to blame: the cheap and often less than refined sex tourists, the huge army of not always honest prostitutes, the gangsters who now rule the roost, and last but not least the extremely corrupt Thai officialdom, police and municipality. Every country and every town gets the tourists it deserves; foreigners can't just "spoil" a place unless actively encouraged by locals who benefit from them.

[ August 07, 2001: Message edited by: Scum_Baggio ]

[Guest]

Hard to appreciate how much the West has done, when you are living on 100 Baht a day.

PLUEEAASSE!http://www.nanaplaza.com/sb/images/icons/shocked.gif

[Guest]

Originally posted by Dan Hughes:

"Hard to appreciate how much the West has done, when you are living on 100 Baht a day."

Poverty rarely just drops from the skies. In most cases, it is man-made and certainly so in Thailand.

Thailand would be a prosperous, flourishing country if it weren't for rampant corruption. Thai Rak Thai? My ass! Thai Lork Thai maak-kwaa.

[Guest]

Well put, Scum_Baggio. Sure, the West didn't do anything for Thailand, out of the goodness of its heart. But, Westerners aren't asking Thais to show appreciation. Westerners, simply, are expressing incredulity as we hear stories suggesting that Thailand would be a more successful country without the West's past and continuing support. We are keeping their sorry assess afloat.

The real exploiters are their own damn people--the Mafia and the National/Local authorities. Those guys are the culprits, and it is a sad, sad comment on the Thai people--that they don't realize this. Of course, the more that Thaksin deflects attention away from this reality, and towards a Western boogie man, the more secure he and his ilk will be.

Yes, expect things to get worse for everybody outside his tight Chinese circle, during his tenure.

[Nervous_Dog]

There is a very well known (infamous) Thai artist called Wassaan.

Most of his works a re very political and sexual, but he also writes a lot. His writings are not disimilar to what is written at demonstrations etc. Very Left wing, Very hard.

I took two girls to dinner with him and some mates, and was amazed at the level of the very very political discussion.

Afterwards I asked one if she was always this political, and she said "My family talk all the time in our village about same things Wassaan talks about, he is a good man, my village would like him"

Moral of th estory is sweet little Thai girls from up country can be very political - and also rural villages are still capable of being hot pots of political thought.

[Guest]

Just thought I would add my opinion to this discussion. Being a businessman who started out from a home on welfare to a self-made millionaire I have sympathy for people without the resources they have to succeed. But I also feel that for the most part poor people in America have no excuse for it if they are mentally and physically able. I get tired of those who whine about everything being somebody elses fault. That they are "disadvantaged" B.S! Get off your ass. Don't have 5 kids you can't support. And if you do then give them some proper guidance for god's sake, while you sit on your fat ass.

Now in undeveloped countries things are a little different. With no social welfare system in place, your only hope to survive is by having a litter of puppies. Who will syphon off some of their meager survival to keep you fed. The problem with this is that it compounds itself. You have to keep making more kids to support the more kids of the kids and so forth. Eventually you simply outstrip the available resources to support the population. Quality of life goes down. Simple isn't it?

Now a western country with a giant economy comes along and sees a large population of cheap workers. It sees profits. It invests money to realise the profits that cheap labor can offer. Sue me. Communist-Socialist will say that the people are being "exploited". Baloney. It is a beneficial arrangement for both parties. The laborers and the "big bad" corporations. Nobody is being forced to work for the corporations. If you don't want their money, chase frogs. It is a choice and a better oppurtunity than what they had before. The same with prostitution. Don't want your daughter to be a prostitute? Don't make her one. Have her chase frogs. Back where you started.

Now the purpose of a government is to redistribute the wealth for the benefit of the people while at the same time not killing incentive for those with the money to invest in your business environment and thus create more money for your people. Take away too much money from their earnings and they'll do business elsewhere. Or for that matter go live someplace else if you tax them too much. Works the same for people who have chosen to enjoy a better living in Thailand as it does for corporations setting up shop there. So I don't see where people get off on blaming the West for their problems. There is nothing wrong with making a profit. It is the best system ever invented for improving the quality of life. It is aligned with the principles of nature. We want to survive. More resources mean a better survival. Of course it can be taken to excess. And when corrupt politicians line there pockets and their friends pockets with money they have not earned it hurts everyone else. Especially those without power and influence. When an economy is small then the effects are more pronounced. In the U.S. if Bill Gates is worth 50 billion dollars more power to him. He earned it. We can afford it. Works out to $150 a person. (of course he really isn't worth that. Can't base a persons worth by multiplying his shares times the price of the few that are traded. If he sold all his stock tomorrow it would be worth 10% of it's current trade price). Now if a corrupt individual in Thailand lines his pockets it hurts more. It works out to a big chunk of change to the person only making a few hundred or thousand a year. What it comes down to is that the government of Thailand has the power to tax and distribute wealth as it sees fit. The more western investment and product it produces as well as the wages it pays (which comes from our in-debt Visa Cards) the more there is to be distributed in Thailand. The problem of povery therefore rest solely on those in control in Thailand. They can steal it or use it to help their people. Yes, the "big bad" corporation has allowed a situation where an oppurtunity exist to steal but that is not our fault. Our intentions are correct. We haven't forced anybody to steal from their people. Please don't tell me that the West is guilty of "entrapment".

[Stickman]

The following letter was in todays edition of The Nation. I thought it was nicely written and sums up the thoughts of many farangs... Thais are fiercely patriotic but is xenophobia a good thing?

 

Bravo and well done, to the courageous and insightful eight who people Thailand's Constitution Court.

Let their brave decision put to rest once and forever the silly notion that Thailand is "a nation of laws, not of men". May their ruling also permanently give the lie to the asinine assertion in Thailand's Constitution that all people are equal before the law.

Let us no longer be slaves to farang and to their bizarre compulsions over equality, transparency, integrity and the like. Such alien ideas have no proper place in this Kingdom, nor anywhere else in Asia for that matter. Those imported values are as out of place in this wonderful country as a pair of diamond earrings on a kwai.

[spirit_of_town_hall]

How true Sinsin, I often think to myself if countries such as Thailand, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc would send aid to England if we had terrible flooding! would they f***

Countries outside the west are incredibly cruel places where life is a lot cheaper, indeed many arab countries feel we in the west view individual human life to highly!

I don't live in Thailand so maybe I'm not as qualified to comment, but for as long as the west has the money which they will do because we are no way as corript as they are they wont do anything.

The Thai govt has no real clout, economic or militarily, Thailands foriegn policy, is what America tells it do.

Like Indonesia and especially Malaysia such policies of blaming everyone but themselves don't work.

The Thais should look to Singapore, Phillipines and look how those countries are building up expertise, especially Phillipines in the IT sector.

At the moment Thailands biggest foreign currency earner appears to be its daughters and that cant be blamed on the west.

[Guest]

Originally posted by spirit_of_town_hall:

"I often think to myself if countries such as Thailand, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc would send aid to England if we had terrible flooding!"

Pakistan and Bangladesh would say Alham Dulhilla, you're finally receiving Allah's punishment for your wicked Western ways.

Thailand would sent its foreign minister, who'd live it up for a week on wine, women and champagne, smile politely at TV footage of the flood, and then ask for a substantial loan for drought relief in Isaan.