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xenophanes

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    Smog In Northern Provinces Threatens Public Health

    in Chiang Mai News

    Posted

    This smog is an absolute disgrace. I spoke about this to a high ranking local official last year and was told that it was almost impossible to find and prosecute fire setters. When I suggested that the law ought to be reframed to make the owners on whose land the fire is set, responsible, I was met with an incredulous gawp. Apparently, this angle had not been considered.

    Enquete: Gay Magazine Cover

    in Gay People in Thailand

    Posted

    Hello!

    My name is James Barnes and I am the editor of Thai Spice magazine.

    www.thai-spice-magazine.com and if you click on the top right hand corner of the home page, you can see the online version of our current issue.

    If I can help you in any way, please email me: [email protected]

    I may also want to write about your magazine in my magazine!

    Best wishes,

    James Barnes.

    Gay Life In Thailand?

    in Gay People in Thailand

    Posted

    Takes two to play, JT- you do like to have the last word, you know... :P

    Seems like this thread HAS gone off topic- to remind everyone, it's supposed to be about gay life in Thailand (presumably outside the main cities). Yup, it's there. And there are also all manner of people across the spectrum to meet, looking, acting, dressing every-which-way.

    I FAN Q!

    Gay Life In Thailand?

    in Gay People in Thailand

    Posted

    This one is a bit difficult for Westerners to get their heads round. There is no Gay Life in rural Thailand - just Life. And that includes all the categories that we keep separate and distinct in the West. I live around 300km from BK in a rural farming community. We're simply part of the family, live in the main family house, take part in bringing the kids up, all the things that families normally do. Everybody in the village knows us, Police, Wat etc etc. Simply no issues - except perhaps the pitty they won't have children one. There are at least two other gays in reasonably close parts of the family, similarely a non issue.

    So how do you meet them? Well you won't except completely by accident. Relationships are formed through knowing your school buddies, family connections etc. Plus Thailand has a feature unlike any other country. There is really only one city - BKK. So all Thai's count "Home" as the rural village they were born and brought up in; But, they all spend time in their twenties working in Bangkok. So an awfull lot of relationships are formed away from the prying eyes of family in BKK and then exported home when all parties are sure its a keeper. That goes for straight as well as gay.

    So if you are looking for Thai Gay Life as opposed to commercial gays - who are often straight - then BKK is the place. But expect to have a really exciting time visiting all sorts of dives that you wouldn't have dreamt of going to! My personal recommendation would be to visit some of the gay sauna's that are not frequented by westerners. Go in the late afternoon early evening and simply wait and see what happens. Let them approach you, not the other way around. Then you might find yourself on a rollercoaster evening out to all sorts of weird places. Expect it to involve Karaoke - the Thai version is reallly brilliant, not at all like the west - and expect it to go to at least 5 am. View the sauna as a meeting point, not a destination.

    Elsewhere in the country, just go and lurk somewhere for a while - perhaps a few days, for people to get used to the fact you are there and for the word to get round.

    Chris

    Many thanks. I have sent you a personal message so please check your inbox.

    Gay Life In Thailand?

    in Gay People in Thailand

    Posted

    Homophobia, Jim, but not as we know it.

    My BF comes from a small place in Isaan. He says that his dad would have killed him, if he had been out. He still can't tell his old uni pals; his degree was a macho one in science, and not arts.

    As a single westerner in the boonies, look at the gay guides. Sure, sure, you can meet nice boys on the street--but some will just smile in a friendly way, without wanting love. We are spoiled in BKK...so many boys and bars and etc.

    OK, OK, so Thailand is not Idaho, but there is still some redneck stuff.

    Eddy

    You give a very one-sided impression of rural Thailand! I live with my partner in a small place in Isaan, 100m. from his parents. The whole family is well-known and respected in the community, and having a gay 'son-in-law' doesn't worry them in the slightest. And I have a katoey brother-in-law!

    But OP, you're in a foreign country, and you don't know the rules; stick to the bars and places you can find in the gay websites. Not all of them are commercial.

    Where are you in Isaan, Isanbirder?

    Gay Life In Thailand?

    in Gay People in Thailand

    Posted

    Homophobia, Jim, but not as we know it.

    My BF comes from a small place in Isaan. He says that his dad would have killed him, if he had been out. He still can't tell his old uni pals; his degree was a macho one in science, and not arts.

    I didn't realise that degrees had degrees of gayness? :P

    'Fraid so, especially with young Thais. If you do Comm. Arts at Chula, then many of your class will be happy and gay. If you do mechanical engineering (anywhere), then you will be kinda xpected to be a jock and talk about titties. Some stay closeted. My BF went for a meal with his old classmates last week. Science bunch. Only one knows about him. The rest wanted to go to a brothel after supper, and he was teased (again) for not going.

    This thread seems to have strayed a little from my original question, which is and interesting but surely there are bars etc for gay people away from the tourist areas even though there is a strong vein of homophobia in Thai society?

    Gay Life In Thailand?

    in Gay People in Thailand

    Posted

    I suggest that you browse through gayromeo to see what is out there in the backwoods! Alternatively you might try chatting to boys in Bangkok who are from the provinces.

    There is, of course, gay life in the provinces, although because of the language issue it tends to be a bit 'sticky rice'.

    I suggest if you are travelling alone, that you tread carefully.

    Thanks for this.

    Where are you rodentwarrior and 'tread carefully' to guard against what?

    Airasia Offers Free Thai Tickets As Fare War Takes Off

    in Thailand Travel Forum

    Posted

    I sure wished that was true.. free tickets out..

    I find all these freebies good for tourism, but I live here and went to the ATM machine yesterday and was told the exchange rate was 32.14. I proceeded to get money from the machine and lo and behold the ATM exchange rate was 30.48 and there was an almost 5$ fee plus 150.00 badt to use the ATM. What kind of rip off are the banks here pulling now. They have always taken money off the top, but this is too much. Who could you complain to about this outrage. Just last week they were not doing this at my bank and now they are. I now have to figue out how to git around using the ATM machines here as I don't intend to pay this rip off amount for money exchange.

    I don't know of any atm's that do not charge the 150 THB fee.

    • Popular Post
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    The Rural Poor Of Thailand... Some Surprises

    in General Topics

    Posted

    Some interesting reading....

    The Down-Trodden Rural Poor of Thailand

    It's not quite what you think

    Here's what you need to know about the rural have-nots of Thailand. They are the richest poor people in the Third World. And they owe none of their affluence to Thaksin Shinawatra.

    Fugitive former Prime Minster Thaksin, a billionaire wanted in connection with corruption and tax-evasion on a staggeringly egregious scale, has done a remarkable job of convincing the world that he is the champion of the rural poor in Thailand, and that such prosperity as the farmer enjoys is in some way due to him. Yet all of "his" programs have been in place for decades. His well-financed public-relations machine merely invented catchy new terms for them.

    In Europe and North America, farmers tend to be affluent. A comparison is therefore not at all meaningful. But take a village carpenter in Thailand's northeast and compare him with a wood-worker in a small town in Iowa. To the American, the Thai seems impoverished, his house appalling basic, his expectations in life distressingly limited. But the Thai carpenter probably lives on family land rent-free, pays nothing to moderate the climate, produces his own vegetables, chickens, eggs and pork, and rides his own motor-cycle to his jobs. He's seen the American lifestyle on TV, and it's so far beyond the range of his experience, he doesn't feel deprived or envious.

    Every village in Thailand was on the electricity grid long before Thaksin came on the scene, and virtually every village family has a refrigerator, electric rice-cooker, TV, radio and a couple of oscillating fans. Almost all rural households have a motorcycle, though it may be old and battered. In every village several families own pickup trucks. Animals are no longer used for farm work except in extremely remote corners of the kingdom. If farmers don't have a mini-tractor of their own, they rent or borrow one from a neighbor.

    The "landless peasant" class exists, but is very small when compared with the Philippines, India and much of South America. The rich absentee farm landlord is almost unknown. Most farming families tend a small plot of land they own outright, mortgage-free (due to unscrupulous practices in the past, an outdated, paternalistic law prevents them putting up land as security with money-lenders, though they may borrow on anticipated harvests.) They sell a small cash crop through a co-operative. Their grown-up or adolescent children supplement the family income from jobs they hold in the cities.

    Thailand, like the U.S., has a fallen-through-the-cracks underclass. While statistics*, as everywhere, have to be taken with a large measure of skepticism, officially 10% of the population is below the poverty line (12% in the U.S., 14% in Britain, 36% in Bangladesh). Of course, that means the poverty line for Thailand and no international comparisons are invoked. Poverty doesn't necessarily mean doing without TV or not being able to lean a beat-up old 100 c.c. Honda Dream by the door.

    Unemployment in Thailand is 1.4% -- among the lowest in the world. Here it has to be cautioned that employment statistics are notoriously unreliable. Even in advanced countries, economists cannot agree whether to include the under-employed and those not actively seeking work. But unskilled work, if not well-paid, is not hard to find. My Bangkok apartment building has had a "security guard wanted" sign out for weeks.

    During the dry season, many farmers supplement their income with construction work in the cities. But some prefer to do without extra luxuries and live the slow-paced, well-fed rural life. Two or three years ago, I found it impossible for several weeks to find a plumber to put in a new bathroom. Many "peasants" have become self-employed entrepreneurs and done well for themselves. Thaksin's policies had no discernible impact on the labor force.

    There is no population pressure in Thailand, since each female, on average, gives birth to 1.6 children in her lifetime. That is well below replacement level, so the population will in time shrink unless immigration is vigorously promoted. Reduction in family size was achieved through education and the perceived economic benefits of smaller families, the same way it was reduced in Europe and Japan. This got started in the 1960s.

    Wealth distribution in Thailand is no more extreme than in most industrialised countries. The poorest 10% of the people of Thailand own 2.6% of the nation's wealth. The richest 10% own 33.7%. In the U.S., the comparable figures are 2% and 30%, in the U.K. 2.1% and 28.5%. These statistics may not be wholly reliable, but distribution of wealth is unquestionably much more equitable than in China, India, Brazil or South Africa. Even isolated Thai villages, especially in the central plains, would seem very prosperous to rural Pakistanis and positively utopian to most Nigerians. Thaksin's much-vaunted "village revolving development funds" financing local enterprise had their antecedents in the 1970s.

    All main roads in Thailand are paved (close to First-World standards), and most secondary roads are surfaced, as are a good many of the tracks that lead into remote villages, even in the poorer north and northeast parts of the country. It was like this when Thaksin was still a bankrupt ex-cop.

    There are slums in Bangkok, but you have to go out of your way to find them. Since almost everyone is employed, squatters on state land in the cities often live there by choice because it is rent-free. You certainly do not have to go out of your way to see red-light districts. Incomes from the sex industry (obviously denied to those lacking looks and personally) exceed factory wages fivefold or more. The blind and maimed can apply for state aid, but street begging is often more lucrative. One sets one's own moral priorities.

    There was care at government hospitals and health clinics long before Thaksin came along with his fancy $1 scheme. Treatment is not world-class but it is medical care nonetheless. People in need of operations get them for small fees, and if they have no money the charge is written off. No one is turned away from emergency rooms at government hospitals. Doctors who went through medical school on state scholarships owe as many years of modestly paid service in rural hospitals as they had in tuition.

    Almost no Thais are unable read & write. Girls on average get 14 years of schooling and boys 13 years (note that girls are ahead). About 1.75 million post-secondary students (over 20% of their age group) are enrolled in universities (ranging from world-class to barely respectable), two-year colleges or vocational schools. Bright kids from poor families get government scholarships, so up-by-the-bootstraps success stories are so common as to be unremarkable. This high rate of upward social mobility goes back at least half a century.

    Infant deaths per 1,000 live births in Thailand tallies 17, compared with 180 in Angola, 153 in Afghanistan and 6 in the U.S. Life-expectancy at birth is 73.1 years (78.1 in the U.S., 66.1 in Russia). HIV-positive people make up 1.4% of Thailand's population (0.6% in the U.S.)

    With a population of 66 million, Thailand has 62 million registered cellphones and 7 million landlines. Service is as reliable as it is in Europe. One-fourth of the people regularly use the Internet. Thaksin's own company, which prospered prodigiously while he was prime minister, had one-third of the nation's mobile-phone customers. He sold the firm to an investment arm of the Singapore government (and paid no income tax).

    Thailand routinely exports more than it imports. It is attractive for foreign direct investment. It therefore has enormous foreign reserves, and even though the country has few natural resources to sell abroad, its reserves, at $138 billion, are the 10th highest in the world. (Britain has $56 billion, Australia $45 billion). This means plenty of capital for employment-creating new manufacturing jobs, which entice rural folk seeking work in cities. The Thai currency is so strong that even recent political troubles have not budged it.

    Contrary to a widespread perception, the country's main exports are not agricultural products, but cars & trucks, motorcycles & vehicle parts (made by foreign-owned subsidiary companies). Exported pick-up trucks, the biggest single-selling item, contain negligible imported parts. One Japanese manufacturer sources its world-wide production of one-ton pickups, including those sold in Japan, from its Thai factories. Machinery is another big export, as are components for computers and other electronic goods, textiles, garments & footwear, processed food and animal fodder. Way down the list of foreign-currency earners are rice, sugar and tourism.

    Over the years the Thai government has routinely produced a trade surplus, a current-account surplus and (though not this year) a budget surplus.

    Since 1960 (when Thaksin was 11) no "developing" country has exceeded Thailand in average annual per-capita GDP growth. The farmers are still poor by western standards, but they've had their share of this rising affluence, and they are better off than rural folk in any other nation on earth for which we reserve the term Third World. ✹

    * All statistics quoted in this article were independently cross-referenced from at least three of these sources: UNICEF, UNDP, World Bank, Asian Devt. Bank, IMF, CIA, WHO, Bank of Thailand, Thai National Statistics Office. In no case is a figure quoted from purely Thai sources. In addition, plausibility comparisons were made with the statistics of a number of other countries.

    • Like 4

    The Book That Helped Me (and My Friend) Quit

    in Stop Smoking Forum

    Posted

    I read Mr Carr's book many years ago (even before Carr had died of lung cancer) and it did not help me at all. The only real message within the pages was that in order to quit, the smoker has to make the decision to never smoke again. Not just to wish it or desire it or want it, a cast iron decision has to be made.

    In my case, hypnotism lasted 10 days.

    Nicotine gum gave me hic-coughs.

    I even resorted to accupuncture where pins were left in my ears and I was instructed to press on them when the desire for a smoke arose. That lasted less than two hours- which was the time that it took me to work out that the only logic to the whole business was that it is impossible to light up with your fingers stuck in your ears.

    I couldn't keep the nicotine patches alight.

    2 years ago, I was admitted to a hospital in Phuket, unable to breathe because my lungs had siezed up when inhaling my first fag of the day.

    I have not smoked since.

    A cast iron decision was made for me.

    Good luck to all who decide to stop.

    Buddhism Is A Religion

    in Buddhism

    Posted

    To label Buddhism as a religion is merely a convenience. All religions demand 'faith' which I understand is not required in Buddhism. The Buddha provided tools to discover truths for the individual and does not involve having to accept abstract deities.

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