Guest Posted June 21, 2003 Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 a great first post which started a very good thread. i hope it will stay that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattaya127 Posted June 21, 2003 Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 class ---------------------------- gender. and i dread the day when that will finally explode in a larger context. ----------------------------------- Should we farangs start bringing boxing shells ("coquille"), for lower protection? ... :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 21, 2003 Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 i guess it won't be much directed against us, has never really in the past when things blew over. that somehow is a bit of an advantage of not being really relevant to people's daily lives here. there was recently here on channel 7 a documentary on the nightlife and western oriented prostitution. one girl said when she was interviewed what she thought about that "reputation" of the country thing, that she could not care less as the country has done nothing for her - she was raped when she was a kid - she had a child from a husband who abandoned her, and she had to fend her whole life for herself. rather brave statement to air on TV here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 21, 2003 Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 Hi, >>>>a great first post which started a very good thread. i hope it will stay that way.<<<< Me, and BB, will make it so........... HT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 21, 2003 Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 Hi, Let me ask you something, FLY. What are your views on the resigination of the Thai people, as a whole, in terms of their pre-determimed destiny, as they might percieve it? WOW... not trying to get too deep, but you do hold the envenienable positiion of living there, and the insights, therein. HT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaiLuk Posted June 21, 2003 Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 fz to ib: your little joke here is not funny, but very condescending. Is there a new board rule that says no genaralized jokes about the girls? but don't kid yourself into believing that you are god's gift to asian females - you aren't, and never will be. Who thinks they are god's gift? This does sound like 'holier than thou' stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaiLuk Posted June 21, 2003 Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 in those classes people are not really concerned with that middle classy emancipation thing - man and women there are equally fucked by life. and they know it very well. problem is that there are not many options, and feeling sorry for themselves is not one of them. people here often look so soft, but behind that they are incredibly tough and strong, have to be to survive. Now this was an excellent post, hope to see the thread continue in this vein. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
check_bin_krap Posted June 21, 2003 Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 HT, I have to write a reply even though you said to Fly... What resignation??? Thais are so so so proud - to be Thai. It wasn't like that always everywhere - but today, most are. God damn it! This country stands proud - and has so much to be proud of. Not been occupied by foreigners for how long time?? No wars since God knows when?? I bow my head to Thailand. Deepest respect from me Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 22, 2003 Report Share Posted June 22, 2003 the resignation... i have to disagree here with check bin krap a bit. from what i can see in the lowest parts of the society here - big time resignation. the massive drugproblem of thailand is just one indicator for that. and the ruthless supression made it difficult to get drugs now does not mean that the problem is over - as soon as the government is relaaxing it will come back as massive as before. the crises here has changed everything - before people had that dream of one day being part of the modern world. landprices boomed - simple farmers suddenly could afford to buy all the luxuryitems when they sold their land which was worth nothing in monetary terms before. those days of plenty are gone, and people are in some aspect in a worse position than before. land gone, cars reposessed, no jobs. a dangerous polarisation in the society here is in progress now along classlines. i don't really see that resignation as too much influenced by religion. organised buddhism is somehow similar to organised christianity in the west - it can't offer any solution to the everyday problems of the people, and all the scandals in the last years did a large part in people gradually losing faith. you have here a increasingly nihilistic youth. gangs are on the rise, the brutality of the conficts is very bad. that happens outside the areas of silom/sukhumvit and is rarely written about in the english language papers here. on the other hand the upper middle class youth is getting unbelievably materialistc, somehow along japanese lines - in fashion and in in the whole outlook on life. very far separated from the life of the poorer kids. what i can see and feel is a lot of supressed anger and resignation, and no educated leadership which could transform that into some positive movement. you have some union people, and some NGO people working in the grassroots, but i do not see them having much effect. the present government does not really seem to work well together with them, tries to undermine their base. which could be observed easily during the destruction of the pak moon dam village and the clashes in the south. this i see as a very dangerous development. the complaints of the people are real, and the government walks on a very slim edge between being a opressive dictatorship (the drugwar), and on the other hand it appears to be serious with the landreform by now finally taking away illegally held sor por kor 401 land and redistributing it to the poor. but as many economists here on the board have said, it's economical politics are not that sound. one thing has to be remembered: thai people do bury their true feelings, put on a smile even though inside they might feel completely different, they do that individually, and as a society. that does somehow hold the society together, but history has shown that it also tends to suddenly explode if it gets too much. another huge factor to hold the society together here is the king as a person (less than as an institution). he is somehow the moral conscience of the population, the one factor which has always stepped in when things got overboard. there is nobody in this country who carries that moral respect, especially respected by the poor. his life work is the improvement of the life of the poor, his program of sittakit por puang, a selfsufficient farming system for small scale farmers and his numerous other programs. one recent brilliant thing was that he granted the title of khunying to the famous dr. pornthip, circumventing the normal way. there he made a very strong statement. but his health now is fragile, and thailand is slowly running out of time. it is not foreseeable what might happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 22, 2003 Report Share Posted June 22, 2003 >>>No wars since God knows when??<<< 1986 the communist insurgency fished because of a royally brokered amnesty. that civil war started in the early 60's. in march the drugwar started - so far around 3000 dead, tenthousands in prison, and more in the camps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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