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The privilege of tea for two


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Over two cups of Thai iced tea, I had an epiphany about Thai society. The beverage tension was passing but it lent a powerful flash into the stress and strain that have been stored in the many elements comprising this country which are moving against one another... like conflicting earth plates before an earthquake.

 

The incident occurred last week. It was the launch of a book by bead collector Dr Banchar Pongpanich, at Museum Siam. For those who missed it, the place was recently in the news as one of the highlights of its current exhibition - the rare Suriya Dev bead - had gone missing but was later returned by mail.

 

The book launch started early in the afternoon on the museum's outdoor lawn. The organiser provided a dozen or so booths offering various kinds of food and refreshment to participants. As it was a hot and humid day - the sky heavy with dark clouds and it did rain later - my sister, her friend and I joined a long line of people queuing up for sweetened iced tea, while I waited for Dr Banchar to lead a guided tour of the bead exhibition.

 

As I watched the young man in a Malay-style outfit "throw" the milk tea from one pitcher into another presumably to add flavour through frothing, beads of sweat ran down my back. The tea-maker apparently wanted to draw attention to his booth so he added the act of turning round and round as he poured the drink as well. The result was the line was hardly moving while it got longer and longer.

 

I asked if it was possible for him to pour the prepared milk tea in the pitcher directly into the cup and distribute it to us. He said no, "the tea needs dressing."

 

So on we waited.

 

Finally, we arrived at the head of the queue. Just at that moment, a woman in uniform walked over to where we were standing and told the booth keeper: "Two iced teas for phuyai."

 

The booth proprietor did not say anything: he only made an uncomfortable face. My sister's friend who was next in line mentioned to the uniformed woman: "Aren't we old enough to be phuyai?" Still, he let the woman cut the queue and take the two cups, as obviously she was but a staffer who'd been ordered to do so. "Two cups only, okay?" he told the staffer.

 

Right on queue, another uniformed woman turned up at the head of the queue. Same order: "Two iced teas for phuyai."

 

Ah ah, no no. Please get in line if you want the tea, my sister's friend told her. She walked away. Seconds later, another woman, seemingly of a higher rank, sauntered briskly to the iced tea booth. Same order. The booth keeper, still looking uneasy as all eyes in the long line were fixed on him like a row of angry beads, said he would like to give the tea to her but "there are so many people waiting."

 

My sister's friend told the woman the same thing: that she would have to get in line behind all those 20 or so people who were there before her, if she wanted her two cups. She insisted. "For phuyai." We persisted: "No way". The tea pourer kept on dancing round and round. All eyes were fixed on the situation that was heating up. The booth keeper kept the tea-filled pitcher raised in mid-air...

 

Finally, he poured the tea for us. We left to take our tour. As I looked back, the queue-jumping woman still stood alone, uncomfortably facing the long line of unyielding thirsty people.

 

Admittedly the incident was a minor one. Still, as it happened, it served to remind me in such a lucid way the very problem gripping Thailand. Thai society is deeply hierarchical, nobody would deny that. The thing is, while certain groups of people hold on to some traditional ranking of status based either on birth, wealth, seniority or gender, many segments of society have moved on to embrace other, more egalitarian criteria as democracy grows. There are more and more people now who would not kowtow to "privilege", who would no longer concede their rights to other people's presumably a priori "entitlement."

 

An uproar is caused by this kind of gap among fellow citizens. Think about the AIG bonuses. Why did such a small amount compared to the whole bailout package cause such a powerful backlash? The anger stems from the feeling of injustice: one group is adhering to an old set of norms which others no longer believe is fair.

 

The iced tea incident tells me that the use of privilege to get even the smallest favour still exists in Thailand. The phuyai who believe they can get away with it should beware, however. More and more people will not tolerate such a practice that is a remnant of the feudalistic past. They no longer think it is fair. And they can get very angry.

 

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/13886/the-privilege-of-tea-for-two

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Read this in the Post the other day. Pretty good essay. Not sure what political statement the author is making, she did a very good job of being extremely oblique.

 

â??The thing is, while certain groups of people hold on to some traditional ranking of status based either on birth, wealth, seniority or gender, many segments of society have moved on to embrace other, more egalitarian criteria as democracy grows.â?Â

 

What I read out of it is a couple of middle class women made a statement that unearned status doesnâ??t do it for them anymore. This highlights that the key to changing Thailand is with the ever growing middle class. These are not the elite, though compared to the rural poor, it may seem like they are. The rural poor will only cause more chaos if they are allowed to continue to be manipulated with pluralistic policies under the guise of â??democracyâ?Â.

TH

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yes playing the queue is still very much alive here apart that the 'phuyai' no longer gets (easily) away with it anymore.

 

my favorite is the expressways toll booths which outside of 'rush hours' or actually any time may not be fully manned & guess which booths will always be the closed ones? Yes the 'direct' ones in front of the outer, middle & inner lanes in order to provoke unnecessary & dangerous lane changing & thus 'queue jumping' by the 'phuyai's (bmw & other 'VIP's) however as stated it no longer really works these days as a pickup or even van/truck/nano is as likely to 'push/block' as a ferrari or emergency vehicle!

 

damn stupid strategy of the manning of the booths causing a certain extra amount of accidents & delays every single day :banghead::(

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