xthAi76s

I don't want to bash Thais in this case, but for the things they are good at, they are terrible at designing spaces with people in mind. Nothing done for comfort or safety. In the city like Bangkok, I suppose I can understand but when you goto a beach, you expect (if you are from a first world country, perhaps, if that's fair) that you'll have a safe place to walk along the beach and a safe place to access the beach from your hotel/resort/etc. They can't seem to figure these kinds of things out here which is strange.

Oh, the food was pretty terrible, too. Overpriced, poor selection and poorly made at almost every place we went to along the beach.

People were actually nice, but almost everything else was really terrible.

it is an ugly place. I had to stay there while the flooding sorted out. overbuilt, in typical thai fashion nowhere to walk, thais seem to be OK leaving around trash and debris on the beach everyday/night, cars speeding at very unsafe speeds down the beach road which people must cross (at their own risk) to get to the beach. very pathetic place indeed. I hope they can do alot better, but if it's 80 percent done, they obviously don't really know how to make actually 1) SAFE and 2) nice and pretty.

Even the trees on the beach are wrong -- not sure if they naturally grow there, but it gets super hot (as we all know), and the trees are pines which provide very little shade. They need to plant broad leaved trees so that you can actually sit out there in the daytime. They def need some help and whoever is in charge of the project should visit some nice beaches outside of that area (or perhaps even outside the country) to see what things typically go into developing a public beach front. I mean, certainly a f**kin place to walk safely (instead of along the road with speeding cars/trucks and bikes) would tend to be pretty standard.

Everything is relative. The size and scope of corruption in the USA probably outweighs any other country on Earth. Thailand's corruption leads to tiny bribes to police officers and officials. USA's corruption leads to international wars and openly stealing money from the poor to give to the rich. Anyone who has even the foggiest idea what a lobbyist is or how influential they are can attest to how widespread corruption is, especially in Washington DC. Even the Supreme Court is openly on the take (how else do you explain the millions of dollars paid to Justice Clarence Thomas's wife by a lobbyist group, much less their 'Citizens United' decision which unleashed the flood gates of corrupt corporate money flowing to candidates, putting the power of elections into the hands of big business and out of reach of the poor voter).

I am just tired of all the bashing the ethnocentric westerners love to do of those in other places. The US/UK/Franco/Spanish colonialists have done more damage and caused more corruption in the last few centuries than any country in Asia could ever even fantasize about, not to mention how they basically provided the world with a model on how to be corrupt. At least in Thailand, the average westerner can easily afford to pay the bribes and deal with the corruption. In the USA, the corrupt people who run the country will not even give you the time of day if you are not a billionaire.

I don't know if you are American or not, but if you are, you are truly a s.t.u-p.i.d American, or at least don't have a clue what you are talking about, if you are European or Asian, than ignore this comment as none of you have a clue about America except for what you see in movies. First, to give you concrete examples, we just had last month the Governor of Illinois (Rod Blagojevich) who was convicted of "conspiracy" to commit mail fraud (meaning he didn't do it, he just planned to do it), lying to the FBI, and "attempts" to get endorsements, "attempts to bribe". He didn't take money, he only offered money for endorsements. These endorsements turned him down. There was never any benefit from them. He was impeached from office, baned from politics for life and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Name one European country that deals with corrupt government officials the same way, and also compare that to the 2 years Thaksin got for crimes that dwarf that of Blagojevich's, or, Chirac in France getting a two-year suspended sentence for diverting public funds.

Does America have corruption, absolutely; however, our culture hates it so much that we have prosecutors, investigative reporters, watch-dog groups, and business and political rivals that obsess over catching their rivals in an unethical act. Our society is so open that reporters win pulitzer prices for finding dirt on corrupt business and political leaders. Political rivals win campaigns off of it. Professors fill their classes with lectures on it. Give me a break. There's no country in the world had hard on business and political leaders than the US. Consider the 150 year sentence and a $17.179 billion fine that Bernard Madoff received 3 years ago, and he was one of the most elite and politically connected guys in America. If you want to say America is corrupt, back your c.r.a.p. up with some facts.

And, all of you who are talking about the police bribes, that amount of corruption is less than a sarang compared to the big Thai companies, the military, the high up elected officials take on construction projects, military contracts, foriegn business setting up major installations. If you are only quoting about the street bribes as the corruption, you have not a frick'n clue. Go back to your beer and bar girl.

Everything is relative. The size and scope of corruption in the USA probably outweighs any other country on Earth. Thailand's corruption leads to tiny bribes to police officers and officials. USA's corruption leads to international wars and openly stealing money from the poor to give to the rich. Anyone who has even the foggiest idea what a lobbyist is or how influential they are can attest to how widespread corruption is, especially in Washington DC. Even the Supreme Court is openly on the take (how else do you explain the millions of dollars paid to Justice Clarence Thomas's wife by a lobbyist group, much less their 'Citizens United' decision which unleashed the flood gates of corrupt corporate money flowing to candidates, putting the power of elections into the hands of big business and out of reach of the poor voter).

I am just tired of all the bashing the ethnocentric westerners love to do of those in other places. The US/UK/Franco/Spanish colonialists have done more damage and caused more corruption in the last few centuries than any country in Asia could ever even fantasize about, not to mention how they basically provided the world with a model on how to be corrupt. At least in Thailand, the average westerner can easily afford to pay the bribes and deal with the corruption. In the USA, the corrupt people who run the country will not even give you the time of day if you are not a billionaire.

Pretty big difference between lobbying and general corruption

http://ftp.iza.org/dp2313.pdf

Couple of points made in this paper (linked to above)

1. Lobbying is generally thought to be more effective than corruption with respect to bringing about policy change

2. Corruption is often aimed at bureaucracy as a means to undermine law where lobbying is less likely to attempt to undermine law as it seeks to affect policy directly.

3. Institutions where there are clear rules and where people's careers are advanced primarily on merit are much less susceptible to corruption.

To your overall point, unfortunately, arguing as to which system is better is indeed a complex matter. It's one that an informed person could likely write a lengthy book about, but, for me, what it comes down to is how I am affected. Personally, I fare better in a system that is at least somewhat predictable (US), stable and cannot be so easily bought as law cannot be so easily undermined with bribery/corruption. One of the reasons the US has flourished is because our laws are not easily bought. So, yes, I too don't like ethnocentrism, but sometimes you gotta 'call it like it is'. Corruption is a serious problem in Thailand and likely playing an enormous role in holding the country back from achieving more rapid improvement ... The same cannot be said for most rich countries.

While I somewhat enjoy reading these articles, I most often feel like they are very shallow. They often just barely graze a very complex topic with some catchy concept placed at the end that we are supposed to ponder. I wish someone would actually write (more thoroughly) about these topics. I suppose, I should look to authors of books and not news. The news here is very often weak.

Sorry to hear about this fatal accident. However, I find this hard to understand. How can a fridge, which is covered in a "plastic" casing become electrically live?

?????????

Fridges have to be earthed. If you look there will be an earth wire at the back. However, in LOS they seem to think that earthing is optional. In fact, you'd be lucky to find any place with a 3 pin plug as a routine fitting. You'd be lucky to even find an earth point in a concrete or wood room/ house with plastic water piping. Which is why I've had to put in ground earths in the last two houses I've lived in here.

BTW, the outside of the fridge is metal, not plastic.

Is there anyone who can provide advice on this type of stuff in Thailand that is detailed enough to help DIYers here who don't have any background in electrics? I have no f**kin idea what to do, but I am concerned. My fridge does not appear to be earthed as it has only two pins. My electric cooker, same. My microwave has a Schuko? plug, but does not have the third ground pin in the plug. It does have a green ground wire on the back but there is nothing in my apartment to connect it to. Complicated crap.

30 years ago the Philippines were ahead of Thailand and now it is opposite. Thailand had its chances over the last 25 years and missed it due to tremendous corruption, oligarch structures and medieval thinking. Even Burmese, having been militarized for the last 50 years, have a better understanding of English.

Thailand is going down the halligalli in overdrive; fine for me, bad for business!

Honestly if u compare the chances that Thailand has over Philippines (English or may I say Taglish speaking), I think Thailand has a better chance. for many reasons. Infrastructure is far far better, though there is room for improvement. It is not the end of the world but there is not much time, I agree.

What can we do as English-speaking folks to make a difference in terms of speaking English for the Thai people ariound us? Surely there is something we can do to make some difference? It only takes a Spark to get a Fire going...

I see it happening in the Thai company I am in. During meetings, English is the language used. Thai is only allowed occassionally - it works to a large extent. All the leaders attending thre meeting are able to communicate in English, though not neccessarily perfect English.

One of the security guards at my residence speaks to me in English whenver he gets the chance. Not good but we are communicating, and he's slowly getting better over the last 2+ months. His "Good Morning" is also used as "Good Evening", but who cares? What's important is I understand him. Even the food stall vendor I buy my "chok" and "kway chap" from, tries to speak English to my Filipna wife. She is using us as practice and I encourage her. Perfect spoken English is not a requirement to communicate.It's also, if not more about giving chances, and that's where we all come in.

But of course if we do nothing to influence the Thais around us and only hang around with those who speak English, then there is NO contribution on our part.

So, Engkish speaking TV members who can also speak Thai (fluent or not) we all have a part to play, don't we?

I think I 'get' your idea, but what a strange concept it would be for me to believe or feel that I should go out of my way to help in such a manner in a country that offers me very little rights/protections. I'm sure there are some 'good samaritans' out here in Thailand -- maybe there are many -- but as 'good' and helpful as I'd like to be, I cannot reasonably and in good conscience focus on helping random Thai people as it is dam_n hard here just protecting myself and those who matter most to me ...

The simple truth is probably that mobilizing an entire nation to speak a new, foreign and very different language will only happen if the populace believes the massive undertaking is 1) worthwhile and in the case of Thailand 2) does not degrade the 'unique Thainess' of the Thais.

These two items are tricky.

The country's leaders need to sell English language, and how do they do that without going against the nationalism Thailand has been building for the past several decades? Tough. I'm sure many Thais know that much of the world's collective knowledge will open up to them if they have sufficient grasp of English, but how many leaders would push the agenda using this truth?

It may not seem related, but the Thai language itself has a few major issues that affect this entire topic. It's been argued (by people better educated on the topic than I am) that Thais spend a relatively large amount of time become proficient in Thai. Especially reading and writing. It's so much a problem that indeed many Thai adults don't read or write as well as top Thai educators believe they should. The writing system, in particular, is said to be unnecessarily complex, old. Certainly simplifying this system would go a long way toward freeing them up for other endeavors. The vietnamese simplified their writing system and it enabled them to teach/learn Vietnamese rapidly. Same with Korean.

Anyway, I fear I'm rambling on, but someone has got to sell this thing or Thais won't buy it. The Japanese don't speak good English at all; they, of course, don't seem to need to ... Will the same be true for Thailand?

"Foreign languages, English in particular, are our big problem. But we can learn them," he said.

In my almost 30 years here I would say English language skills of the Thais has increased 0%. Yes that's ZERO PERCENT. The only Thais I find that can speak English (excluding pillow talk) well are those with English speaking farang dads. They are the ones that will succeed in the years to come.

The doctors at Bumrungrad speak good English

But they charge 1,000 baht per 10 minutes..

Most of the Thais I know who speak very good English don't live in Thailand. They've chosen to reside in the West. Almost every one would hope to never have to return to live in Thailand. True story.

"Thailand has advantages over other Asean countries in terms of geographical features, weather, races and cost of living. The question is how can we make use of the advantages we have?" he said.

Races?

What's that supposed to mean?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8QcEQEKjc8

I think he means the immigrant Chinese.

And, if all fails, I just head over to Emporium on Suk to experience all the politeness by the Japanese transplants in that area. How wonderfully polite they are. What I notice is that I can fairly often catch a Japanese (slightly) visibly bothered by the Thai customary lack of politeness for strangers.

Just for laughs:

I just stick to what I have learnt: holding a door open, letting someone (especially ladies) go first etc.

Still I get (depending on how I got up) aggressive sometimes, if people are just rude...and yes, I tend to forget that this is Thailand and things are handeled differently here.

Shirt and long sleeves - a must! But you can wear flip flops with it!

I'd been the same way for some time here in Thailand. I would just faithfully interact with people using my social values. However, what I realized/suspect now is that unfortunately, as we'd imagine, many Thais do likely know that we chaw-tang-chaat (foreigners of all colors and countries) do not know their system. They therefore often will take advantage of us in this regard and use us as an opportunity to 'get over' on us showing us the least amount of courtesy even they are taught to show to strangers. That's the problem with being nice by our standards. We are no better for it and will almost never get any reciprocation.

Best is to adopt a hybrid system whereby we learn and exploit their system, and, when necessary, use our system when it's advantageous. Sometimes, I will hold the door open for someone even if I know they will not appreciate it or care -- if it serves me well at the time.

This advice strikes me as a bit heavy on the adversarial viewpoint of life as a guest in a foreign country. A bit selfish too. IMHO

I know it must sound that way, but that's not really the feeling. For me, it's more of a survival thing. I need my positive energy to do positive things in my life and in the world. So, whatever non-violent ways I can deflect the constant onslaught of positive energy sapping behaviors, I will use as often as needed.

I just finished reading a book that discussed this type of thing. The book argues that Thais operate in 3 social circles of increasing indifference. They are: family circle, cautious circle and selfish circle.

Take a peek at: http://www.thingsasi...ies-photos/2704

From the link above

"For example, why can such an otherwise gentle and non-confrontational people be such aggressive drivers? How can they be so compassionate in certain circumstances and so callous in others? And why do English-speaking Thais in the company of an English-speaking foreigner nevertheless insist on speaking Thai?"

The authors argue that the answers to the first two questions depend upon what they call the three circles of Thai social interactions: the Family, Cautious, and selfish circles respectively. Basically the list proceeds in ascending order of indifference. The guy cutting you off on the road, or cutting in front of you in a queue, calculates that he will probably never encounter you again and can therefore afford to be assertive."

Great link and good information. I've got the book referred to, and it helped me greatly during a time of real disillusionment in working with my Thai colleagues.

Glad to hear that someone else enjoyed the book. There really are a number of books written about all this. It's not to say that certain behaviors are always excusable, but having an understanding of perhaps why things happen the way they do is really key to preventing the early onset of insanity.

I just stick to what I have learnt: holding a door open, letting someone (especially ladies) go first etc.

Still I get (depending on how I got up) aggressive sometimes, if people are just rude...and yes, I tend to forget that this is Thailand and things are handeled differently here.

Shirt and long sleeves - a must! But you can wear flip flops with it!

I'd been the same way for some time here in Thailand. I would just faithfully interact with people using my social values. However, what I realized/suspect now is that unfortunately, as we'd imagine, many Thais do likely know that we chaw-tang-chaat (foreigners of all colors and countries) do not know their system. They therefore often will take advantage of us in this regard and use us as an opportunity to 'get over' on us showing us the least amount of courtesy even they are taught to show to strangers. That's the problem with being nice by our standards. We are no better for it and will almost never get any reciprocation.

Best is to adopt a hybrid system whereby we learn and exploit their system, and, when necessary, use our system when it's advantageous. Sometimes, I will hold the door open for someone even if I know they will not appreciate it or care -- if it serves me well at the time.

I just finished reading a book that discussed this type of thing. The book argues that Thais operate in 3 social circles of increasing indifference. They are: family circle, cautious circle and selfish circle.

Take a peek at: http://www.thingsasi...ies-photos/2704

From the link above

"For example, why can such an otherwise gentle and non-confrontational people be such aggressive drivers? How can they be so compassionate in certain circumstances and so callous in others? And why do English-speaking Thais in the company of an English-speaking foreigner nevertheless insist on speaking Thai?"

CockneyGit, on Today, 09:58 , said:

Elephant penis on toast anyone..??

Yummy!

Even if the subject warranted a witty quip that still wouldn't be funny.

Why the cynical response? Things that upset people a great deal often elicit a smile or attempt at humour just to cover their true reaction!

Anyway it's just a paraphrased version of an old (and I thought funny) UK joke "Elephant ears on toast ... sorry we've run out of bread"

Please flame the poachers not the posters - in fact BBQ the bl**dy poachers - and the obnoxious HiSo customers too.

"However Its just meat." - absolute nonsense - it is far more than that and anyone with half a brain can work out why....

You seem to be predisposed to offering one- or two-liner responses to many posters' comments. What you often don't do, however, is to provide any well-reasoned, thorough argument. Can you do that here? Can you provide more detail as to your implicit assertion that the animals are more than meat?

I would be very grateful.

The newspaper makes out that the "stateless gang" of poachers operates near the Myannmar/Thai border implying and deflecting guilt to non-Thais. What the newspaper should be doing is a good piece of investigative journalism on the market destination for this trade. For example, the dealers and restaurant end destinations. It wouldn't take the newspaper much imagination to send a "skilled" investigative journalist to smoke out the end user restaurants and medicinal herb shops and then back into the poachers. The fact is if the end users and distribution channels were eliminated, the poachers would find something else to do and the elephants would live happily ever after. You never see anything close to this sort of investigative, useful journalism in Thai press.

Exactly. Because surely no Thai would ever do such a thing as ... it would be against Thai culture.

Btw, what makes people feel so sorry for elephants? I'm not trying to get under anyone's skin, but they are just animals. Just as we eat cows, sheep, etc. Nobody feels sorry for the slaughtered pigs?

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1) Of course traffic engineering is important; that certainly makes sense.<br />

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2) Having well thought road regulations is also important.<br />

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3) Enforcing said regulations is certainly also important, and having high enough penalties for infractions is important.<br />

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BUT, because there is not likely to soon be enough technology employed on our planet's roads to watch over everyone all the time,<br />

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<strong>4) educating the driving populace is also very important</strong>.  You can't engineer away pure stupidity/selfishness.  No amount of traffic engineering (save for automatic computer driven vehicles) will prevent most of the accidents that occur from, say, tailgating at speeds over 100KM/h.  Neither will traffic engineering stop people from going down roads the wrong way (although, true, it may indeed help discourage the behavior).<br />

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As for Thai drivers, I agree that many seem to be fairly well adapted to the road conditions here which is to be expected.  And, yes, many of them are indeed rather impressive in how they manage to stay alive (thus far).  However, I can show you things in any inner city or poverty stricken country that might impress the same.  <br />

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For instance, drug dealers in the 80s and 90s in NYC were remarkably adept at averting arrest by NYC and federal police.  They had all kinds of tricks.  They were older and would approach us young kids when they thought police were hot on their trail and would have neighborhood kids (most of us unaware of the danger we were being put in) hold all manner of drugs (and even sell it) until the heat was off of them.  Back then, it was a very impressive plan.  They decentralized their drugs and used a decentralization network that was often not prosecutable.  Despite all this ingenuity, if you will, the drug dealers nonetheless played a major role in destroying a generation of minority kids and families and themselves.  In other words, their skill at selling drugs betrayed them and those around them.<br />

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Thai drivers are similar.  They are very adept at handling their vehicles on the messed up roads and maneuvering at high speeds while tailgating.  But, of course, the death tolls betray their impressive driving ability.  The numbers of people maimed permanently altering their lives likely for the worse betray their driving skills.  The negative impact to the economy from congestion caused by traffic accidents betrays their driving ability as well.  <br />

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It's complex, but even when trying to be my absolutely fairest and most objective, there is certainly a very high number of Thai drivers (at least as I have observed) which routinely conduct themselves in ways that any objective traffic engineer or physics professor would deem very dangerous.<br />

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<p>your observations are of course pretty worthless they are merely the reinforcement of a personal perception.</p>

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<p>If an objective test were possible I think you'd find that the percentage of crap drivers in Thailand would be about the same as anywhere else.....of course one can't define "crap" objectively and a test would be pretty difficult to arrange.</p>

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<p>Any compilation of roads statistics will have a paragraph that explains the vagaries of compiling let alone comparing roads stats.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>but if you look at the roads rather than the drivers you will see trends emerge on a world-wide scale.....nothing to do with being Thai.</p>

<p>however for the sake of the average TV member it fits nicely into their condescending and racist views of Thai people to suggest that in some way they are innately possessed of an inability to driver that infers the the expat is innately superior......and that really is crap!</p>

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It's a little hard to read your post due to formatting issues, but I will try to respond briefly.

I disagree that my observations are 'pretty worthless'.

Perhaps you did not understand the point I was making in response to the other poster's post. Perhaps an English language idiom will help.

"All that glitters (high stakes driving skill) is not gold (translating into relatively safe or enjoyable or efficient roads)."

If you are suggesting here that people / drivers are not a very important part of the equation and/or that people / drivers either 1) do not differ among countries and/or 2) do differ but not in ways that contribute to accidents or accident statistics, I would like to hear more from you on your argument.

As for my opinions about Western driving ability, I am not of the opinion that I can correctly pick out the safer/better driver 100 percent of the time simply by using a person's ethnicity or country of origin. It is possible, however, to make a statement of observation (having observed a preponderance of evidence, in this particular case, against many Thais) without being racist.

I don't know how the ladies came to the conclusion that statistics are hard to come by:

http://en.wikipedia....ated_death_rate

Many countries look dangerous compared with the UK, which is close to the best in the world at 4 deaths per 100,000 (America is three times worse). Thailand is in line with the global average at around 20 deaths per 100,000 of population.

Those that think Thailand is dangerous need to visit the truly bonkers countries. Having driven through it both ways on the hippy trail to India in the 70s, I was unsurprised to see that Iran's rate is nearly twice that of Thailand. Their macho culture causes them to drive at each other on mountain passes in an oft fatal game of chicken.

Nonetheless, although there are no stats about public transport deaths, I would expect that Thailand's long distance buses are many times more dangerous than their western equivalents (but probably no different from similar developing countries like the Philipines, India, Brazil etc). Also deaths per 100,000 population is a very imperfect measure - what is needed for a reliable measure of how unsafe travel is, would be a death per 100,000 kilos travelled statistic (which would be almost impossible to construct).

Maybe a worldwide study of public transport deaths and/or tourist transport deaths would be a good subject for someone's undergrad project.

I would like to see NCA make some advertising mileage of their apparently better standard of driving. I observe on my drives from Isaan to Bangkok that they are rarely in the 'violently swaying dangerously overtaking' mode, so often favoured by those over-painted VIP wallahs. Perhaps if Thais could be encouraged by the private sector operators to value safety there would be more focus on it. Pigs might fly; when I observed to my wife that I would probably only travel in NCA if I could, she dismissed it with a predictable 'paeng mahk'.

Any undergrad statistics 101 course would caution you against trusting in statistics held up by 3rd world countries, and I believe that's particularly true with respect to those countries with FACE to save.

It's pretty ridiculous to suggest that one would trust the stats. What checks are there to ensure that things are 1) being reported and that they 2) are being reported accurately? Statistics don't come from God; they are man-made. We should be more realistic and think more about it.

actually anyone with the slightest knowledge of stats will look at these stats and realise that they are the basis for some conclusions and ae worthwhile - they would also look at the source not the country.......to simply try and be clever by criticising stats will-nilli is just childish.

I have a 'slight' knowledge of stats. What is the source of the stats? How are they arrived at?

IMO. The thing with gyms,fitness centers,weight lifting institutions etc. is, they are only available because men (mostly men) have been brainwashed to believe that this is the hip thing to do. Same as the "Twiggy Look" for women before. Any normal activity should be sufficient for a normal healthy person.

I agree, but you can't deny that it's pretty nice (and, in my case, motivating) to be a man working out amongst good looking young women.

I have a gym room in my condo which works just fine for me. Don't laugh, but I've found that bodyweight exercises work just fine for me. Dropped significant weight here in Thailand since performing the routines. Following site is excellent: http://www.bodyrock.tv/

As for the fitness of Thais, I agree with some of the guys/gals that the overwhelming majority are unlikely to be fit as is likely the case in any country. If we get into comparing percentages of Thais vs non-Thais, who knows? Also, what is 'fit' anyway. While average Thais do seem to be adverse to walking in the heat, there are a good deal of them who making their livings doing physical work which might tend to make them more agile, though they might still not be fit by typical definitions. Indeed most people the world over are probably not 'fit'. Who here among us can, for instance, run a 12K in a reasonably amount of time?

It's probably more fruitful to compare statistics on health issues related to being 'unfit' -- if those stats exist and if they can be trusted to be reasonably accurate.

This is rather old news. I first read of it on Twitter when the video first surfaced.

Well, no sense in giving a FROC. The FROCing greed won't change.

Thank you much, and got it.

Regards,

Can an American legally hold both Thai and American citizenships?

Thanks,

Delete

Yes, the statistical breakdown would be very nice to see. I fear, though, that it would be some time before we could really trust the statistics to be reasonably accurate.

Just a word about helmets. Many have said that helmets on motorcycles would make a big impact on keeping the deaths down. I have not studied this kind of thing, but I just don't think that a person has a significantly better chance wearing a helmet if he/she is going as fast as most of these guys go. Sure, it would help, but I just don't know how much. The human body is fragile with or without the helmets unfortunately.

Helmets make a huge difference. As does other protective gear. Proper footwear, gloves, leathers, etc. None of which get worn here.

http://en.wikipedia....torcycle_helmet

A 2008 systematic review^[1] examined studies on motorcycle riders who had crashed and looked at helmet use as an intervention. The review concluded that helmets reduce the risk of head injury by around 69% and death by around 42%.

You can survive broken bones, but not a broken head.

I see. Stand corrected. I forgot that you can die from hitting your head not too terribly hard onto asphalt/concrete...