Anti-foreigner sentiment runs high

[Guest]

I not so sure; and I can illustrate why with three simple questions:

 

 

 

First, what is the most popular medium in Thailand? Answer: T.V. Thailand, like many other countries, is a T.V. watching nation.

 

 

 

Second, who controls the T.V. stations and programming? Answer: all stations but one, iTV, are owned by the government, and iTV ? the sole independent - was purchased by Shin Corporation (we all know who owns Shin Corporation right?) just before the last election.

 

 

 

Third, what was Shin Corporation?s first step was after buying iTV? Answer: they fired the reporters.

 

 

[Guest]

and what is the program watched by most thais?

 

not news or propaganda, but soaps and quizz shows. not much anti farang propaganda there.

 

 

 

the last i have read by the way was that ITV had to reinstate the fired reporters with full compensation.

[Guest]

"Exactly. The farther you go away from BKK, the less they listen."

 

 

 

Uh...From what I understood Thaksin and is lovely free circulation ringing "Thai Rak Thai" didn't really come in power thanks to BKK middle and upper classes.Uneducated poor masses have never had the reputation to be the most discerning parts of a society(Well IMO at least)

 

Yes BTW I was earlier referring to Southern Thailand,I faced more agressions from locals there in a few weeks than in BKK in a couple of years.

 

Very interesing post from Gadfly,again.Glad your thai is good enough to understand what's going on around

[shygye]

... over-hearing a bad comment in a thai public or private place seems pretty benign. I think i told about this monk who was teaching thai in Berkeley, being spitted at on his way to the temple. That is racism and xenophobia on a despicable scale, not so in Thailand.

 

 

 

I disagree. At least the person that spits at you makes known to you their TRUE feelings. While those that smile to your face while making racist, bigotted comments about you in Thai is much worse.

 

 

 

I think both views are correct. When we meet Thais at a personal, one-to-one, encounter most are genuinely friendly. This is the micro-scale. If you were to talk to them about how they view "westerners" coming to Thailand to work, start businesses, etc. you will get a hostile racist response. This is the macro-scale.

[Guest]

thaksin did not come to power in the villages because of his anti foreigner rethoric, but because of the 30 baht scheme, the million baht fund and his promise to bring in new faces.

 

the antiforeigner rethoric was more geared towards the lower middle classes.

 

 

 

>Yes BTW I was earlier referring to Southern Thailand,I faced more agressions from locals there in a few weeks than in BKK in a couple of years. <

 

 

 

southern thailand was always more aggressive than the rest, and the south is anyhow the main bastion of chuan and the democrats, not thaksin and thai rak thai.

 

 

 

in reality most thais do not really care about us foreigners, even though we tend to take us very important here. we simply do not play much of a role in thai society.

 

generally, most lower class thais think we a rich, soft, and a bit foolish, nothing to be taken too serious.

 

richer thais know that we do not play any significant role in their very comlex games of power and money.

[Falang]

I think we have to look the other side of the anti-foreigner sentiments to. There is also some good reason for those sentiments and you don't have to look very far to find it just look at some threads of this board. At the political level Thailand is a developing country and is look down by lot of western country has so, a country with no political weight on the world map. We hear all the time that the politics are corrupt in Thailand and that the corruption is a way of life in Thailand but I don't think it's very fair to make it look has if they were no corruption in the western countries, the corruption maybe felt more at the citizen level in developing countries but it's very common at very high political level in western rich countries. Here in the west some of the countries even make law to regulate how a big company can buy influence from politician so you can?t call it corruption because it?s a law and with the huge amount of money involve we can not say that Thailand is the king pin for corruption. We know it and the Thai politician know it to.

 

 

 

On a more human level, the Thais are look down to has second class citizen of the world coming from a developing countries, example here on the board:

 

-?Thais are not that dumb? indicating they are dumb but not at this level

 

-?they don?t know how to think by themselves?

 

-?they don?t know how to do it like we do in the west? indicating we are the only ones to possess the truth

 

(here I leave a space so you can had yours)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can understand why there is anti-foreigner sentiments what I can not understand it is why it is not more common because of the way we threat them.

 

 

 

If we all like to go to Thailand and love the country maybe it is because there is something they are doing right or they possess a truth that we don?t have, maybe it?s because the sanuck or the mai pen rai attitude that we lost .

 

 

[Guest]

>While those that smile to your face while making racist, bigotted comments about you in Thai is much worse. <

 

 

 

well, i am rather fluent in thai, and i rarely encounter those comments. once a while, and i answer generally very quick on any shit given to me.

 

generally, those comments come from some halfeducated lower middle class people or from the twats in the cheapo tourism industry.

 

still, compared to most other asian countries, and most western countries we westerners have a very easy ride here in thailand.

 

i would recommend you staying in india, china or pakisthan for a while, just to see the difference.

 

 

[pattaya127]

So what? What we need at this point is a general bahaviour in all provinces, all walks of life, to corroborate your premises. And concrete laws that spoliate ALL foreigners from their rights and properties, examples of many foreigners being mishandled by thais, or made uncomfortable or harassed. You understand that over-hearing thai-chinese biz at a conference, hardly speaks for 65 million thais.

[Falang]

[color:blue]"I disagree. At least the person that spits at you makes known to you their TRUE feelings. While those that smile to your face while making racist, bigotted comments about you in Thai is much worse."color=blue>

 

 

 

What a great attitude!

 

You don't like them spit at them!

 

You don't like them kill them!

 

You don't like them bomb them!

 

I think I like the biggotted comments in my back!

 

 

 

 

[pattaya127]

So what? You think thais vote for Taksin, after much pondering about his programs. He got elected because he was the new Kid on the block, and his electoral troops were well-trained. besides, I don't think provincial, less rich thais give a deep reflection about foreigners all being world bank invaders of their industrial infrastructure. As for the south, it is often about muslims resenting central govnmt, and a lot having separatist feelings. Hardly people following BKK in anti-foreign crusades (as if....). What happened to you (i wish people were giving clear examples when they claim something) could have happened 5, 10, 15 years ago. In the 70s, it could have been more violent, as the war in SEA polarized thais even more then. You guys need to come up with something serious, that compares to my previous examples, or being abducted from a resort and held hostage in the PHillipines.