Thai Family Patterns

[Guest]

GTG I am 100% with you.

 

 

 

Quote from SED:

 

I credit the last 10 points on my IQ score to to my grandparents.

 

 

 

I wonder how they did this, as IQ is something god given .

 

Meaning the IQ itself not get's influenced by education.

 

 

 

Cheers

 

 

[Guest]

Post deleted by DoxyBlue

[Guest]

Quote:

 

Is preserving a culture of indolence, ignorance and superstition [most of upcountry Thailand that I've seen] worthwhile?

 

 

 

Sorry to say, in this case you haven?t seen a lot or not long enough. The prove IMO, are your statements below as you do not understand that fishing, growing rice, care for the buffalo, basketry is one part of surviving. Not all family members can go working e.g. for health reasons or just because somebody should look for everything (we speaking here of rather large areas of land in general even they are poor).

 

 

 

Quote:

 

Fishing - spend 6 hours catching fish that would cost two hours wages ......

 

 

 

1) In rural Thailand most people fish with a net in some kind of smallish pool in which they feed their fish. A thing of 10 min. to get out a meal for a family (provided there are not all eaten already).

 

2) If you catch them you not have to pay for it and you can spend the money for something else.

 

 

 

Quote:

 

Growing Rice - 30 days of actual labor a year. Not a real job in and of itself. Plus farming is a sucker's game; it's the sort of life that people have looked to get away from since the age of cities began many thousands of years ago.

 

 

 

Huuh, I always was convinced my food is coming for the supermarket:)

 

30 days? It certainly depends on the area of land and number of people involved, but personally I worked rather 90 days then 30. Additionally, in broad areas of Thailand they grow rice two times a year = 180 days (not in Sisaket area due to a leak of water).

 

 

 

Quote:

 

Take care of buffalo - A net-loss project in the age of machinery and fossil fuels.

 

 

 

Yeap, I agree 100%. Are you the one financing the machinery?

 

 

 

Quote:

 

Basketry - an interesting hobby.......

 

 

 

...and certainly more useful then playing golf or tennis and falls in the same basket as fishing.

 

 

 

Quote:

 

But we're not taking about the bookshelf or record collection, we're talking about values. What I received from them:

 

Practical problem solving skills.

 

A respect for the past without being trapped by it.

 

A respect for money and an appreciation for creating a reserve against future need.

 

 

 

1) What is all the knowledge above if not problem solving skills (except of course if a shortage of money is no problem). I figure you should stop comparing your ?sport shoe? live with the reality in many parts of this world.

 

2) Personally I believe you do not know enough about rural life as to make a judgment on how much they respect their past and what is a trap and what not, me neither BTW.

 

3) You also could say ?better rich and healthy than poor and sick?. This is ridiculous.

 

 

 

Cheers

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ThaiHome]

I repeat what I say.

 

I have found in rural Thailand a stronger sense of family welfare then I believe exists most anywhere in the world, certainly in the western world today. What are you basing your opinion on? The dysfunctional bar girl families you have visited? In the village I see, those type of families are not part of the mainstream society. They are tolerated, simply because it is not the Thai way to ostracize someone, but they are not respected, despite how much money their daughters bring in.

 

You say you know about the killing of female babies in China, but you just brush that off and continue to say that the rural Thai families are worse. How many babies do Thai families kill? How many Thai children are begging in Burma?

 

Your comparison of Afghanistan continues to be ludicrous and insulting. What did the Taliban do to the family structure that you find so great? To say that rural Thailand is in worst shape then Afghanistan is absolutely insane. These are the people that not only tolerated, but embraced the people that did 9/11. What the F**K are you on?

 

 

 

For the record I am an American

 

 

 

This will be my last post until Monday, we leave for the village in morning to spend Songkran with the wife's family.

[Pescator]

Quote "I know many people (mainly Filipino) who work overseas away from their kids, they only see them maybe once a year".

 

 

 

Right, fairly common in Thailand too.

 

I just wonder why people have kids when they don`t intend to look after them anyway. I believe that way too many kids are born here without anybody actually wanting them.

 

My brother-in-law lives with his wife right next to the noodle factory where he is a manager.

 

Their 3 kids live up country with the grandparents and have done so for 8 years! Now that is what I call a peculiar arrangement and all too common.

 

The woman running the small store with "my" Beer Chang left 3 years ago for Taiwan. Hasn`t been home since. Kids living with grandparents.

 

Our neighbour`s daughter calls her elder sister for "Mum". When I asked why, she replied that her sister always took care of her. Mum was too busy chewing betel or whatever.

 

In town I met 2 kids of approx. 6-7 ys on the street at 2 am, when asked what they were doing there and where their mother were, they replied that she had gone "haa ngun" "looking for money" leaving the 2 small kids alone for 2 consecutive days. The little girl`s face was striped with tears.

 

Those were just a few examples. Sure as Hell isn`t the way kids are treated where I come from.

 

 

 

I realize that traditional thai family patterns are undergoing a change these years although mostly in the cities. Where my thai family lives nothing much ever seem to change.

 

By the way the Manee Reader textbook i referred to is no new textbook. It has been used for some 15-20 years. I just mention this to show that there is nothing new about the way those kids are treated.

 

 

 

Hua Nguu

 

 

[pattaya127]

GTG, you bring balm to my heart. Firsy time i hear a thai mention Mozart, the most divine musician in the history of the world. There is hope after all.....

[Guest]

"Their 3 kids live up country with the grandparents and have done so for 8 years! Now that is what I call a peculiar arrangement and all too common"

 

 

 

Peculiar to westerners. But not to Thais!! It's a cultural thing and not a thing that we can easily judge from our own cultural perspective. I think it would be fair to say that one would have to have a thorough understanding of the history, politics and the socialisation of a culture before one is able to analyse and/or criticise it effectively. But one thing for sure is that Thailand needs to gather a more global attitude if it wants to gain some economical strength which would eventually help alleviate some of the problems and financial 'necessities' that some families endure.

 

 

 

Anyway, just going back to the little anecdote that kicked this discussion off... (Incidently, Manee does have a mother and a father, grandparents, an older brother named Mana, an uncle and a dog! It is actually her brother's friend Veera, in this lesson, a boy who lives with his uncle and has no parents). That story is part of a series of reading books for Thai kids and have actually been part of the government school curriculum for more than 40 years now but are still widely being used. They are quite broad in their content of farm life, school life, home life etc.. and although harmless and unbiased they are, they probably resemble the school storybooks the we had in the west in the 50's (minus the uncle-reared child). The content is quite cute with apparant timeless appeal and contains many family and life values evident in Thai culture; - respect, cleanliness, obedience of parents and teachers, and for the girls - beauty.

 

 

 

Nearly every Thai person you will meet learned to read by reading these books and know all about Manee and company. I also learned to read Thai with these books. For reading alone their purpose is well served, but something more contemporary and global could be beneficial. Something new that perhaps inadvertantly adresses the caste system.. perhaps even (god forbid) an Indian child could be portrayed - one that doesn't have body odour...

 

 

 

I am a believer that Thailand really strives to stay behind and isolated. Retaining one's culture is a good thing, but learning and adopting part of another culture will only enhance things...One world is coming, be prepared!

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Dan

 

 

 

 

[pattaya127]

dan:

 

 

 

 

 

I am a believer that Thailand really strives to stay behind and isolated.....

 

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I gather you are kidding. Just compare the last 30 years history of Thailand with its direct neighbours Burma, Laos, Cambodia, for isolation and really striving to stay behind they can really write the book (heard of the khmer rouges, tatmadaw junta, etc. ?). The problem is actually quite the contrary as Thailand has long adopted westernization and consumerism as the economic panacea. A quick look at the BKK skyline and shopping malls in any provincial main city are testimony to it. 10 million tourists every year with the freedom to go anywhere they please hardly show that "Thailand" wants to islolate itself. That's for a beginning...

 

Or do you imply thais should stop being thai altogether so that we farangs are satisfied that they finally do things and think the same way as we do in the west?

[pattaya127]

I always thought that the reason why people migrate to work was actually so they can provide for their family. And that maybe that sacrifice (or way of life, not to sound too dramatic) was proof enough they care for their siblings. Ever wondered the % of single mothers working in the sex industry? Ah,yes, maybe just another career choice like any other.

 

When one sees that so many thai middle-class kids have adopted the worse trends of the west (gang rape and killings, drugs and alcohol rampant), i personally find hard to think an Issan kid raised by his/her grandparent should be viewed as a shameful social ill.

[btm1735]

I don't have much expeirence in LOS but I have studied Asian cultures for many years. I find it funny that the basic difference in East vs West has not come up. In the West we view (generally in our ideals although not alway in pratice) our children as responsiblities to nuture and take care of. In the East children are veiwed as assets. Generally it's not that the workers or bar girls leave their children with their parents to take care of them. Whats actually going on is the said worker or bar girl is leaving their assets in the care of their parents while going to work to take care of the said parents. This pattern will repeat itself.

 

 

 

I find it even funnier that this group on this board is always so quick to judge these situations. It may be different from our customs and mores but I found that you get a lot more out of these situations by simply observing with out jumping to a judgement. Not that a judgement can't be made, just it is better if it is a reasoned judgement, not a simple knee jerk based on your own culture. I imagine that alot of our (members of this board) behavior is not viewed very well in our own culture. Something about, let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

 

 

 

Just my 2 baht worth