nemrut

Using the polite articles 'krub' & 'ka' while ripping someone off, or extorting them on the side of the road. Murdering someone who cut you off in traffic, or lying that you understood someone or something (particularly directions) so you don't lose face. Illegally and corruptly amassing vast fortunes of unusual personal wealth, while 15.8 million of your citizens scratch around in the dirt for 50 baht a day. These also seem to be Thai values, krub.

Yes, because your home country is the epitome of high moral values </sarcasm>

But does the posters country claim to be? Thai values are shoved down our throats... in a way which is uniquely Thai- sanctimonious.

How is it not, when the implication that murder, losing face, govt corruption, etc is unique to Thailand?

And who is shoving what down your throats? Sanctimonious...there's plenty of that spread by Farang all over the globe.

"The place is cleaner than my home country and the people here do not randomly litter."

Chiang Mai cleaner than Singapore...or are you referring to a different country?

Singapore and Japan are likely the cleanest countries in the world.

Aside from that Chiang Mai has a lot going for it outside of smoke/rainy season if you can get past the sight of pasty skinned farang walking around without shirts on...

Using the polite articles 'krub' & 'ka' while ripping someone off, or extorting them on the side of the road. Murdering someone who cut you off in traffic, or lying that you understood someone or something (particularly directions) so you don't lose face. Illegally and corruptly amassing vast fortunes of unusual personal wealth, while 15.8 million of your citizens scratch around in the dirt for 50 baht a day. These also seem to be Thai values, krub.

Yes, because your home country is the epitome of high moral values </sarcasm>

Thai's values are exactly what they are doing. Look after yourself, stuff everyone else, pay the commission to those higher up and pretend you are an upstanding citizen.

And you actually believe this is unique to Thailand....Pot?

Thai's values are exactly what they are doing. Look after yourself, stuff everyone else, pay the commission to those higher up and pretend you are an upstanding citizen.

And you actually think this is unique to Thailand....Pot?

The US would seem to be the exception.

The amount of gun related deaths there

Can I ask WHY. you pitched in about the US when the OP is relating the whole entire subject around Thailand? This is another paradox on Thaivisa where no matter how hard one tries to make ones self clear about a story - a TV member chips in after a few lines feeling the need to - wants to - compelled to - about letting us know other comparisons in other countries. Why discuss Thailand at large in these Thai expat forums if a certain majority can't help themselves rabbiting on in the same mundane tone that takes away the interest from the main theme.

Just saying .... No offense my friend

Does the headline not make a direct comparison to the West?

If the US is considered part of the 'West' then it's only fair they are used as an example to counter such an inflammatory assertion.

Seems like Netherlands trying to cover up their own incompetence. It takes a lot to get deported from Turkey which has far more lax border controls than anywhere in EU.

This should have been a red flag to border personnel in Netherlands from the start.

who are the bad guys.... the ones who bring the money to this country and live here, invest here and try to create and integrate into a lifestyle

For every one of these model citizens you describe there are at least 2-3 more low-lifes who are the exact opposite.

They far outnumber the law abiding cheap-charlies who have made their home in Thailand. Otherwise those who have the means to live elsewhere, would not live in Thailand.

The standard sickening result in Thailand. He should be jailed for

a very long time for vehicular manslaughter. If he did

this in the states, he would be in a world of hurt....

A ban ?? For a country obsessed with face, I wonder if

the government has any idea how stupid this makes them

look on the world stage...

Right, like this American kid who only got 10yrs probation for killing 4 people on the side of the road? His lawyer's defense...suffering from 'Affluenza'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Couch)

hmm..where do we start ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Couch)

- 13yr old American teenager is given a car and allowed to drive to school

- teen's school questions practice, rich dad threatens to buy school

- teen racks up history of reckless behavior behind the wheel

- rich dad pays the necessary tea money to cover it up/reduce charges

- teen finally plows into four people on side of the road killing them instantly

- teen's mom takes her son and flees the country then apprehended

- rich dad hires lawyers, argues teen suffering fabricated disease and only gets 10yrs probation

This not an uncommon scenario in US when it comes to penalizing the wealthy nor anywhere else in the world.

Yet where's the outrage, where's the condemnation, veiled racism so often directed at Thais by farang living here?

If this is how the justice system in the richest, most powerful country in the world dishes out punishment, how can we condemn poorer, less developed countries for similar actions?

We can,because there was a real outrage in the US over this case!

Where as in Thailand "she has that name, so we better be quiet" ...and similar stuff!

Yet he still got off with only a slap on the wrist. This stuff plays out all over the world and not unique to Thailand.

hmm..where do we start ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Couch)

- 13yr old American teenager is given a car and allowed to drive to school

- teen's school questions practice, rich dad threatens to buy school

- teen racks up history of reckless behavior behind the wheel

- rich dad pays the necessary tea money to cover it up/reduce charges

- teen finally plows into four people on side of the road killing them instantly

- teen's mom takes her son and flees the country then apprehended

- rich dad hires lawyers, argues teen suffering fabricated disease and only gets 10yrs probation

This not an uncommon scenario in US when it comes to penalizing the wealthy nor anywhere else in the world.

Yet where's the outrage, where's the condemnation, veiled racism so often directed at Thais by farang living here?

If this is how the justice system in the richest, most powerful country in the world dishes out punishment, how can we condemn poorer, less developed countries for similar actions?

Corruption is a fact of life in every country - especially developing ones like Thailand. The difference being that western countries are better at sweeping it under the rug.

Good example is the US banking crisis which almost collapsed the global economy. Plenty of corrupt politicians and financiers were involved and none have been prosecuted to this day.

Do you HAVE to try to justify everything with "this is a developing country".

The US banking crisis has absolutely squat to do with the carnage on the roads here and the fact that killing people with a vehicle is apparently quite ok.

I'll give you this..rich people tend to walk more than poor people everywhere.

Does that make it right? No.

But when money can buy your way out of wantonly taking a human life, this cannot be justified in any society.

Being overly dramatic and resorting to hyperbole does not prove an argument.

"Now, what happens next is not acceptable...... the French guy is killed as a result of an altercation, over what may seem a minor traffic Iincident. Perhaps the rider suffered injury, and the French guy wandered off? We may never know the facts."

If two men, who may be larger than you attack, what are you going to do...let them beat you senseless?

No doubt the Thai guy shouldnt have ridden his bike into them in the first place nor acted out of uncontrolled anger. But there are probably a lot details that are missing from this story.

Let's also not forget many farang have a penchant for drinking too much and getting violent. Walking around without a shirt in public certainly doesnt help either.

Corruption is a fact of life in every country - especially developing ones like Thailand. The difference being that western countries are better at sweeping it under the rug.

Good example is the US banking crisis which almost collapsed the global economy. Plenty of corrupt politicians and financiers were involved and none have been prosecuted to this day.

Care about your health? Vespas are some of the worst polluters on the road belching toxic fumes all over the place. Isnt the air quality in BK already bad enough...

This article presents nothing other than dismissive, whiny, nastiness using acceptably polite lan

No worse than the 'dismissive, whiny, nastiness, using acceptably impolite language' by many on this forum to bash Thais.

The article speaks a lot of truth you and others are simply in denial about. You did notice that the author is farang right?

That doesn't always make him right though.

There are very many of us farangs who are nothing like the author describes and as Shaunduhpostman says above. We don't all live or even want to live in farang ghettos. We didn't all marry HiSo Thai ladies, nor wear wife beater T-shirts, get drunk, every night in places like Pattaya etc, cause accidents, overstay or any of the other myriad things that farangs are sometimes accused of.

Many of us are normal quiet peaceful people who ended up here in Thailand for one reason or other and have put down roots, who DO obey the laws as silly as they seem sometimes, who rarely visit hospitals, who DO pay our way. Many of us have married Thai ladies and have families and extended families and are quite happy to be here.

Sure I can think on quite a few ways that Thailand could do differently which would make life easier for me and my family and everybody else and their families but I don't have a say in it and rightly so as it isn't my country.

In my country I still pay tax and I do have a vote but I still can't change things if the person/party I voted for doesn't get into power.

True but you should also acknowledge that there a many if not more farang who fit what the author describes.

Hospital care without payment ?? You must be fresh off the boat

and wasted no time in putting on the rose colored glasses...

If you cut your finger, the hospital may take a chance of fixing

you and hope you pay. Any major operation or procedure you

will be paying in advance, or you will receive NO treatment....

So on the day of your operation, the first thing you will do

is visit the patient services desk where you pay upfront

for their estimated total cost.

If youre injured they wont turn you away and will bill you later. Whether you're able to pay is another matter altogether hence the concern that farang are straining a healthcare system that is already inadequately funded and staffed.

Because youre not looking at the big picture.

Municipal services, government, etc all part of a country's 'infrastructure.'

The same infrastructure thousands of farang enjoy for free courtesy of Thai tax payer.

The same infrastructure that deals with the numerous farang altercations, violence and criminal activity.

The same infrastructure that allows farang to get hospital care regardless of whether theyre able to pay.

The same infrastructure that is barely capable of serving it's own citizens let alone the hordes of farang who strain the healthcare, law enforcement and emergency personnel that deal with all the farang suicides, deaths and other self-induced mishaps.

All this 'infrastructure' courtesy of Thai tax payers...

Very well ducked.

But if you want to talk about infrastructure are you talking about the airports that bring tourists here, the roads they use to sightsee, the water and electricity that goes to their hotels?

Every time someone buys something in Thailand they pay tax and support the economy.

You obviously believe that having foreigners in Thailand costs the economy more than not having them here.

I believe you are completely incorrect.

Of course there are exceptions but the vast majority of ex-pats pour far larger sums of money into the economy than they take out.

This article presents nothing other than dismissive, whiny, nastiness using acceptably polite language. I wonder how the publishers or the author would like it if we all just disappeared? Just you guys and the junta and only your nice Chinese tourists for company. Something tells me you would not like that either.

Foreigners are human beings not Hollywood celluloid come to life. Just because they don't conform to stock cartoon-like naive preconceptions doesn't mean they are all worthless and should be written off. Like the locals we all have our flaws but we are not all alcoholics, homeless people, and criminals. If Thais don't want us here because we are just bad apples, then they need to take responsibility and bar us from all but 2 week holidays. If we are nothing more than a problem as the article suggests, then the publication needs to suggest solutions instead of backing down and slinking off. Otherwise what is the point of this rather banal caterwaul anyway?

No worse than the 'dismissive, whiny, nastiness, using acceptably impolite language' by many on this forum to bash Thais.

The article speaks a lot of truth you and others are simply in denial about. You did notice that the author is farang right?

Like a properly functioning police force, fair and impartial Judiciary, and an effective democratically elected government - who aren't in their positions for the sole purpose of amassing grotesque levels of personal wealth? Yep, guilty as charged...

Do you think you could afford to live here if Thailand had that level of infrastructure?

You do know youre in a developing country right?

Didn't notice any reference to infrastructure there.

He said that many farangs expect the same cultural standards here in Thailand as they have within their home countries.

Like a properly functioning police force, fair and impartial Judiciary, and an effective democratically elected government - who aren't in their positions for the sole purpose of amassing grotesque levels of personal wealth? Yep, guilty as charged...

Do you think you could afford to live here if Thailand had that level of infrastructure?

You do know youre in a developing country right?

It always surprises me that so many farang would choose to live in Thailand and elsewhere in Asia when all they do is complain about how bad it is.

The only conclusion one can draw is that the primary motivation is dictated by finances or lack thereof. Otherwise, why waste precious time and your remaining years in a place you clearly despise...

Just curious what would happen if someone did the same as you in India?

Much of the livestock in US is pumped full of antibiotics, growth hormones to maximize profit and reduce costs, despite any FDA regulations.

Like Thailand, that is the only way food conglomerates can meet demand at an affordable cost while still making a profit.

The entire meat processing industry is nasty, brutal and cruel in the way livestock is processed.

Figures that a nation of drunks would devise such entertainment masqueraded as 'charity event.'