Guest Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 Your post would have much more creditability if it did not follow all your other posts that have taken every opportunity to show your vitriolic anti-American attitude. I always thought that the credibility of any post is given by the content of truth and not by the name of his author. But it seems that you don't find any statement to critizise and so you insult me. By the way without giving any indications which would proove your statement. Usually I write something anti-american when I have read something about the superiority of the western civilisation on this board. And I don't use the word "western" because I don't like that the americans speak for the whole western civilisation. Best regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted January 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 naiv, Is the Western approach to Occupational Health and Safety *better* than that which seems to be in place in Thailand and much of Asia ? Yes, I believe that it is, for all its bureaucratic nonsense and legal hijinks. It took Westerners a couple of hundred years of the industrial revolution to realise that losing fingers, arms, legs and lives wasnt necessary for factories to run or skyscrapers to be built. Union leaders literally fought with employers and the establishment to ensure that workers didnt have to continue to suffer. When you go onto a construction site, or into a factory in the West, you can expect that there will standards in place to ensure some level of personal safety. I can accept that Thais may be naive, and not necessarily stupid, when they attempt to use an oxy welder whilst clad in no protective gear - I've seen it done here in Oz - but I've seen too many instances of unsafe practices throughout Asia which endanger the lives of both the individual and those around him. And that, my friend, is stupidity. Its not about being 'better' - its about having learnt from our own mistakes and putting standards in place, and its about valuing the lives of individual workers. I'm sure that your own family wouldnt want it any other way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattaya127 Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 I am quite sure that if enforcing road laws were as lax or arbitrary in the USA, you'd have people riding Mbikes without headgear on the freeway, or not buckling up. It would be all up to you, in some ways. Many good points have been made about the culture in Thailand as explaining carelessness, but i am sure that the idea of getting away with it, because regulations are not that enforced (more and more though), is as good an explanation. The helmet law is exactly 6 and a half year old (mid 1997), you still have people in major cities having one but not riding with it, cops striking down or not haphazardly, and most helmets being as protective as a sheet of paper(1). If you can do it, in LOS, then people do it (like driving on the curb lane), there is just not that ping pong going on where safety and polution regulations are slowly understood by education and enforcement between people and the authorities. It is evident to me that thais liked this idea of total freedom on the road, that for many, there is very little security reasoning as why safety laws are there, and so it's still a "don't get caught" game. (1)I mean, in my GF's village, many Mbikes have only the gears as brakes ::, and that's something no thai cop will ever worry, enforce or verify. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buddha Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 What is a pushbike? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iono Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 what happen when no more gas :: sorry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted January 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 OK, buddha, I'll humour you - a 'pushbike' is otherwise known as a bicycle ...... or 'deadly treadly' here in Oz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fidel Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 I was back home in Ireland recently. The government there is being accused by many of creating an over regulated 'Nanny' state... creating new laws to protect people from themselves and rigidly enforcing existing laws. From January 16th it will be illegal to smoke anywhere where people work.... that includes bars and prisons. Meanwhile, a strict points system has been created to help enforce road traffic rules. I was amazed to see how effective the new points system has been... people who would normally disregard speed limits etc. are actually dropping to a speed of 40mph in a 40 zone and staying below the 60mph limit on many of our main roads. As a result 2003 saw the lowest number of deaths on Irish roads in 40 years, keep in mind that 40 years ago there were very few cars on the road in Ireland.... 341 deaths on the roads this past year compared with over 17,000 deaths on Thai roads. This means that you are more than three times as likely to be killed in a traffic accident in Thailand than in Ireland. If the cops would enforce road rules things would be different. The problem is.. it isn't in the interest of the Thai police to enforce road rules. Road traffic fines are a massive source of income for the Thai police. If the police enforced road rules to the extent that people would actually obey the rules of the road then the Thai police would lose a huge amount of cash. Economics is definitely a factor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iuytrede Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 Irish and common sense safety So it took the Irish 40 (that's forty!) years to figure out how not to die on their roads! :: And even after 40 years they couldn't figure it out by themselves - they copied a points system like the one that has been used in Germany for decades, just as they copied the speed limits of other countries! Doesn't this prove a complete lack of common sense among the Irish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spirit_of_town_hall Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 Remember though lawyers have studied harder and longer than most people. Pouring over tedious legal text and having to listen to moaning greedy clients, eyes shiny with the prospect of a payout. If America didnt have such a high level of greedy compensation culture people the lawyers would go away... STH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iono Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 Wow! An Irish-American Bashing post outstanding :: ! Being of said heritage, recently they've imposed the non-smoking ban in Bars and restaurants in my county in the State of Washington. Owners are up in arms over the heavy government regulation, they feel "if you don't like smoke don't visit my establishment." Same should be said of wearing helmets while driving a motorcycle, want to live, wear one, if you don?t, then take your chances. I don't know what's worse a government imposing common sense on some one or allowing them to go about their business in life letting happen what will happen. A lot of this heavy handedness has done nothing but disrupt the natural selection process ensuring the survival of the idiots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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