simoh1490

22 hours ago, pattayadude said:

unfriendly staff is a norm in any business in LOS

That's completely false, it might be the norm for you, in which case you need to look in the mirror because it's certainly not the norm for most of the rest of us....that said, I do believe that locals get jaded faster in tourist destination than they do in the real Thailand.

5 minutes ago, kannot said:

NO it applies  to anyone who doesnt  look Thai, my Burmese worker got in at the Thai price when he kept his  mouth shut.

Let's not split hairs, the message was crystal clear in that dual pricing is commercial in nature and this is about racist attitudes, not commercial opportunism.

4 minutes ago, kannot said:

Good  job the Thais arent then eh???

I didn't understand the above.

But I do understand that different people have different experiences and that sometimes taints their views, that happens with all races of people everywhere.

+TWO

18 minutes ago, vogie said:

I honestly think you are mixing with the wrong crowd simoh, nothing I have come across here in Thailand with my friends suggests that we Brits are overly racist, incidentely I think you have set up a topic ready for some people who already dislike us to have a pop at us, custom built for them so to speak. Most of my friends have Thai friends and can speak a modicum of Thai and have nothing but respect for our hosts. 

The biggest problem I have with Westerners, not just Brits is the swearing, I totally abhor it, even when there are no ladies present I feel uncomfortable, some people seem to struggle with sentences without at least 3 expletives being involved. I have had barbicues at my house and all the Thai ladies there were all educated, but one man (not Brit) insisted talking to them like they were bargirls, he was asked to leave.

But if you have read a survey in the leftest rag, The Guardian, who am I to argue. ????

If spending time on TVF is "mixing with the wrong crowd" then yes, I can agree, solely in the context of this topic - nobody I know in person behaves the same way that a majority of posters do here and that is my sole basis for starting the thread. I applaud your attitude in the example you stated of the Brit. at the barbeque, I've done similar in an upmarket restaurant in HK some years ago with a Brit who thought it was OK to behave as the same way and he was a work colleague!

I personally tend to push back when I see a conveyer belt of abuse designed to denigrate other races without people even thinking or understanding the issues, the recent thread about the Phuket propeller accident involving a Chinese woman yesterday was classic in both respects, it was appalling but allowed. As for The Guardian, I read all sorts of news sources, as do most sensible people.

To add: I think this is simply the way that large numbers of Brits (and Americans) are yet most Brits go to an extreme to suggest the opposite plus there's endless legislation designed to prevent people from being that way - let's face it, if people weren't that way already the legislation wouldn't be needed in the first place. Sadly, Thailand doesn't have such legislation, yet!

6 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

For a hilarious (and insightful) take on this see Trevor Noah's "In the Dark" (or something like that)...it's on Netflix.

Sent from my SM-J701F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

"Afraid of the Dark", it's excellent and very funny.

2 minutes ago, ezzra said:

Not sure what the OP is on about, show me a country devoid of racism and discrimination and i'll show you utopia, every country on earth has racist people to this or that degree, some hidden and suppressed and some showing for all the world to see, so yes the UK has it, the US has it big time and so many of the European countries...

Let me try and be more specific, just for you ezzra:

I don't understand why Brits/westerners in Thailand (not just in their home country) are so intolerant and overtly racist towards the races I mentioned, a trait that is confirmed by their attitudes at home, according to the survey.

1 minute ago, Oxx said:

The poll results are open to very different interpretations.  For example:

 

"Being overlooked in a job application process or for promotion at work in a manner that felt unfair" could simply be that the ethnic minorities have an inflated and unrealistic sense of their abilities.  It's well known that the proportion of black students in Oxbridge is very low because they disproportionately apply for the most competitive subjects such as law.

 

"Being refused entrance or asked to leave a restaurant, bar or club for no good reason".  The "no good reason" could actually be a very good reason, but that the individual simply didn't know that their appearance or behaviour was unacceptable by the standards of the establishment.

 

 

So you think the poll may have reached the wrong conclusions and those 47% innocent foreigners suspected of shoplifting were just a mistake? 

Without seeing data it's hard to comment on your Oxbridge/promotion example.

Your last point is always a possibility but isn't that leaning a tad towards grasping at straws.

17 minutes ago, Denim said:

Talking of overtly racist , have they started a double pricing for tourist attractions in the UK yet, you know like in our script :

 

' entrance fee .....5 pounds '

 

and in other scripts , Thai, Arabic , Chinese etc

' entrance fee ......50 pounds

 

Really should get on this then maybe they could throttle back on some of the austerity measures. Get a few more bobbies on the beat or something.

For sure that's not a really good thing but it is merely commercial in nature and it does apply to all non-Thais. The sort of racism I'm talking about and which the poll quite shockingly identifies is people being wrongly suspected of a crime, strangers being verbally abused solely on the basis of their race and generally being treated differently.

5 minutes ago, ravip said:

"Thais do not want us living here"

"Thais are xenophobic, racist or/and insecure"

 

Every country has their own peculiarities. But people who always complain and generalise the Thais should seriously have a look at themselves! They sure might find the problem therein.

Most Thais dont care about the foreigners so long as they dont interfere in their day to day lives. Of course, at the Bars you might find many "friends"!

Amen!

Around ten years ago a number of posters jumped all over me for suggesting that large numbers of Brits. were seriously racist, "oh no they said, Britain is one of the most tolerant countries on earth" - nothing I've seen since that time has changed my mind, in fact, thousands of comments on TVF subsequently have only strengthened my view. An ICM poll recently confirmed the extent to which racist bias exists in the UK and it makes interesting reading:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/dec/02/revealed-the-stark-evidence-of-everyday-racial-bias-in-britain

From recent threads on TVF we know that large numbers of posters seriously dislike the Chinese, can't stand being around Indians or Pakistani's and loathe the Arabs, not for any sensible reason that I can see other than their cultures and customs are very different from our own. Significantly, given that so many posters take every opportunity to bash Thai people for absolutely everything, I can only guess that is also an extension of racist their attitudes.

All of this is very odd to me since here we are, guests in a foreign country, a people with an education mostly better than that of our hosts and with the benefit of experience learned from international travel, why is it then that we as a group are far more overtly racist than the people here everyone likes to bash so much?

On 11/30/2018 at 4:03 PM, possum1931 said:

But they do need us, they don't want us, but they need us, where is Thai immigrations income stream going to come from?

Both they and the visa agents are in this together, yes, they need us all right.

What percentage of Thai GDP does that represent, feel free to express your answer to five decimal places if necessary, as a percentage of say USD 460 billion?

5 minutes ago, Ctkong said:

Thais are basically feudalistic and xenophobic. They only tolerate foreigners..all foreigners not just whites. 

They love our money though...

one day when the big earner is not tourism anymore, they will show their true colors..

The big earner is not tourism, it's exports, tourism is only about 20% of GDP. including indirect and induced:

https://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/economic-impact-research/countries-2018/thailand2018.pdf

11 minutes ago, Ctkong said:

In China pedestrian has the right of way regardless the traffic condition. Maybe they ‘abuse’ the system for so long that  it was ingrained into their mindset and they brought it to apply in Thailand ..

in singapore, pedestrians has right of way at zebra crossing regardless of traffic condition. But when they do the same when visiting Kuala Lumpur malaysia , they ended up with horrendous result. 

Moral of the story is always be mindful where you are and do not expect your country’s way of doing things here. 

10

Excellent, thank you for that, especially the following which gets my vote for quote of the day (seriously) which all TVF posters should be forced to recite one hundred times, before posting.!

"Moral of the story is always be mindful where you are and do not expect your country’s way of doing things here". 

1 hour ago, madmen said:

11 hours ago, simoh1490 said:

There are several hundred guest houses that can be booked using Agoda or similar, all of which accept credit cards!

That's just to hold the booking. You pay cash when you get there.!

Nonesence, there's plenty of ways to pay by credit card at either  guest houses directly or via booking sites beforehand, plenty.

6 minutes ago, Saladin said:

Hundreds of small Thai owned hotels deserve to go bankrupt if they are not prepared to raise their standards of furnishings and functionality.

Too right, let's get them all looking like Holiday Inn and Travelodge!

7 minutes ago, Olmate said:

Same way they cross busy roads, everything must stop because me no look!Surprised she didn’t,t put the baby in the pram out first!

It's a very effective way that works well in China, as a pedestrian you look straight ahead and don't try to anticipate traffic, walk at the same steady pace and let the cars drive around you. If you try and do it any other way in Beijing you can easily die.

3 minutes ago, quadperfect said:

Stupid lady. You dont get off a bus when its moving.

Well they must in china.

Charge the lady not the boys . Its all on her.

Not only in China it seems!

1 hour ago, balo said:

Uninteresting for most people. 

The majority of national parks we've been to have been simply outstanding, The royal palace gets a bit old after showing it to overseas visitors half a dozen times!

1 hour ago, madmen said:

1 hour ago, bodymassagemyfriend said:

They absolutely dont in the low end. You can get even 10% discount if you pay cash like guest houses.

You must be kidding. Not a single guest house in the country will except credit cards , beads or shells. It's always always cash

There are several hundred guest houses that can be booked using Agoda or similar, all of which accept credit cards!