Foreign tourists tidy Koh Pha Ngan beaches, earn praise

[jacko45k]

9 hours ago, Lupatria said:

Finally they realized that farrangs are good for something else than just being cheated?

The guys selling them the bin-bags are making a killing. Emptying them into the sea and selling them back!

[drgoon]

9 hours ago, Gandtee said:

What happened to the beach cleaning machines that Pattaya Council bought many years ago and never used. Their excuse at the time was that no one knew how to use them?

They still don't lol

[Blackheart1916]

10 hours ago, outsider said:

How about getting off your butts (and face out of your laptop and smartphone screens) and cleaning the trash yourself, instead of sitting on your high-horses lavishing praise on other people while you do nothing? Don't you locals feel ashamed that foreigners are clearing YOUR trash? You don't feel embarrassed welcoming foreigners and visitors to a beach of trash?

 

Second comment directed at The Nation - just because a person has a fair complexion and blond hair doesn't necessarily mean he/she comes from the west. The 'western woman' could have come from Eastern Europe. The right word to use, if you MUST describe the subject's ethnicity, is 'Caucasion'. Come to think of it, was it necessary whether the woman came from the east, west etc? Wouldn't 'tourist' be enough? Describing the 'garbage collector's' ethnicity and region of origin is highly unecessary in the context of this story.

Maybe the people lavishing praise don't actually live near that beach because, you know, this internet thing, it's all around the world now.

[IAMHERE]

10 hours ago, Lupatria said:

Finally they realized that farrangs are good for something else than just being cheated?

Yes, laughed at too. I have to think that most of the locals just shake their heads and wonder. Cleaning a beach is not a laudable act in Thailand or else it'd be done by more , more often, to gain merit.

[Get Real]

Yeah, praise is the only thing they can do. Take on the work themselfs would be to heavy.
They should be ashamed of sitting in a keyboard corner praising tourists for cleaning their beaches.
Mostly there are Thais/vendors and bars along the beaches that are lining their pockets with selling the garbage that gets thrown. 
Very simple and no volonteers needed. Make them responsible for cleaning up the beaches.

Edited November 3, 2017 by Get Real

[impulse]

10 hours ago, terryofcrete said:

There’s one born every minute.... poor  tourists ... bless them for their naivety.

 

Cleaning the beaches isn't the important thing.  It's the setting of an example, and perhaps embarrassing the local officials into action. 

 

May be futile, but we don't know that unless someone actually tries it.  Instead of sitting behind a keyboard and bashing our hosts and people actually out in the world doing something positive.

 

Edited November 3, 2017 by impulse

[Nurseynutcase]

12 hours ago, slippery snake said:

Thing is , it wasn't a Thai cleaning up the rubbish !!!  Only see Thais doing that when they are being paid to do so.. 

Actually I dispute that comment.  One day I was cleaning an area of the beach in Kata when a Thai lady came to me and thanked me for what I was doing.  With that she also helped me to clean the beach and wanted to carry on long after I wanted to finish.  A one-ff maybe but it does show willingness.

[elgenon]

Why weren't they arrested for no work permit?

[digger70]

Well now ,It has to come to this ,,Foreign people come to Thailand to pick up rubbish,, Is it  Below Thai people Standard to pick up their own Trash and dispose of it the Right way? Have they sunk That Low? Disgusting People  

[hotchilli]

Work your arse off all year to go on holiday to a "paradise beach" spend all day cleaning up the garbage & go home....

come back next year....

I DON"T THINK SO

[OldPedro]

One of my first vivid memories of 10 years ago was taking a Bangkok river cruise and watching the deckhand sweeping rubbish off the deck into the water. Thainess at work !!

[geriatrickid]

Thailand No.1 

Farangs come to Thailand because they love the  beaches and the local culture. Clean up the beaches and Thailand will lose its allure.  

[Gandtee]

There is no disputing that keeping the country neat and tidy is generally not at the top of the populations list of priorities. But then this applies to most countries. I have moved into an area of Bangkok where early morning the house occupants are out sweeping the area in front of their houses. The sois are pristine. But then it appears to me that many of the occupants are getting on a bit and reasonably affluent. Coming out of a building adjacent to Kasetsart last week, teeming with students, nurses and Joe soap, the pavements were littered, and with overflowing rubbish bins. Is this a case of 'not in my backyard?' or lack of community responsibility?

[farcanell]

Excellent.... no money changing hands, right?

 

i wonder if I can suck one of these farangs into mowing my lawns 

[farcanell]

4 hours ago, Get Real said:

Make them responsible for.....

Lol...

a newbie mistake there brother.... 

[impulse]

2 hours ago, Gandtee said:

There is no disputing that keeping the country neat and tidy is generally not at the top of the populations list of priorities. But then this applies to most countries. I have moved into an area of Bangkok where early morning the house occupants are out sweeping the area in front of their houses. The sois are pristine. But then it appears to me that many of the occupants are getting on a bit and reasonably affluent. Coming out of a building adjacent to Kasetsart last week, teeming with students, nurses and Joe soap, the pavements were littered, and with overflowing rubbish bins. Is this a case of 'not in my backyard?' or lack of community responsibility?

 

I'm old enough to remember when litter was a huge problem in a lot of areas back home.  And the massive publicity campaigns to encourage people to be more responsible.  Which probably paled in effectiveness to the fines up to $2000 for littering.  (and that was the '60's when $2000 was an annual salary) 

 

Those fines seemed to turn the tide back home.  Although we'd like to credit civic pride and a superior sense of environmental awareness.  But that's largely the Bwana in us...

 

[Phanganguy]

Many of these responses apall me and just show ignorance... If you know Phangan... You will know that the majority of beach cleans, and numbers of people involved, are actually local thai and thai environmental groups, alongside the thai recycling and eco groups. Shame on you! The fact that farang and thai are both working together, to common objectives is all to the good

Www.ecothailand.org

Edited November 3, 2017 by Phanganguy

[murraynz]

yes, i cant understand why thais dont take more pride in their beautiful beaches--they are sooo money orientated-- its just a pity they dont realise that cleaner beaches would bring more tourists = more money money money..

labour is cheap--even if the authoities pay for a cleanup every morning ,then after full tide each day...the revenue from more tourists would more than pay for this.

i know so many people who will never return to thailand, because of the rubbish--they also tell many others,who dont bother coming at all...

iits not just the beaches that need cleaning---there is rubbish every where.

even the rubbish collection trucks leave a trail of rubbish on the road at each pick-up point--{beach rd ok}

[Get Real]

1 hour ago, farcanell said:

Lol...

a newbie mistake there brother.... 

 I must defend myself with that I said "make them responsible. Never said it was possible. 

Edited November 3, 2017 by Get Real

[Gandtee]

It's called evolution I think. In London during WW2 there were posters everywhere . 'Don't be a litter bug. Put your rubbish in the bin!' 'Kitchen waste in the pig bin!' But there was a war on and the population pulled together. I made a brief visit back to England last year and it's obvious that that spirit has waned somewhat. Considering that Thailand has evolved from using biodegradable  banana leaves for wrapping most things to being blitzed by plastic bags for everything, in a short spacetime. It will take sometime for this awareness to evolve. Not before it's too late I hope. Please don't tarnish them all with the same brush. Educate the kids at school. And educate the adults with media coverage during soap opera prime time. Start imposing fines and broadcast it.

[Thechook]

3 hours ago, Phanganguy said:

Many of these responses apall me and just show ignorance... If you know Phangan... You will know that the majority of beach cleans, and numbers of people involved, are actually local thai and thai environmental groups, alongside the thai recycling and eco groups. Shame on you! The fact that farang and thai are both working together, to common objectives is all to the good

Www.ecothailand.org

You don't have to apologise for others, it is known for what it is.

[the guest]

I wouldn't lift a finger without a work-permit !

[sambum]

2 hours ago, the guest said:

I wouldn't lift a finger without a work-permit !

Very true! And tourists that go on holiday to clean beaches?

[the guest]

Yeah had this in 2004 at the time of the Tsunami.

The authorities came, and rounded-up many of the charities from outside the country and foreigners who were trying to help. Many were deported and others were fined for not having a work permit. 

Last time I do anything for Thailand !

[Nemesis7]

Well no matter what and how much you do this for society still you will not be spared from cheating

[sambum]

Has nobody thought of bio degradable bags in Thailand? Or charging 2 or 3 baht for a plastic bag. The way they dole them out at the Supermarkets is astonishing - 2 or 3 items in a bag, and then they start on another one! Are they paid by the number of plastic bags they use, or on some kind of commission?

[Blackheart1916]

10 hours ago, sambum said:

Has nobody thought of bio degradable bags in Thailand? Or charging 2 or 3 baht for a plastic bag. The way they dole them out at the Supermarkets is astonishing - 2 or 3 items in a bag, and then they start on another one! Are they paid by the number of plastic bags they use, or on some kind of commission?

And sometimes, 2 or 3 bags for 1 item. That really says it all for me.

[carmine]

On 11/3/2017 at 7:50 AM, impulse said:

 

Cleaning the beaches isn't the important thing.  It's the setting of an example, and perhaps embarrassing the local officials into action. 

 

May be futile, but we don't know that unless someone actually tries it.  Instead of sitting behind a keyboard and bashing our hosts and people actually out in the world doing something positive.

 

Its completely futile.  They don't even have enough self respect to realize how bad it looks on them that its foreigners trying to keep their country clean, being paid nothing whilst they sit back on their lazy <deleted> watching .  Thats the sum of it.  

 

Apologies if this offends you but its exactly the way it is and they will simply view those cleaning the beach as idiots for doing it, whilst continuing to stub out cigarettes and dump litter.  

 

In order for things to change they need to feel the pain, probably financially of the backlash of their beaches not being clean and when it hits them financially they will get up off their <deleted> and do something about it themselves.

Edited November 5, 2017 by carmine

[impulse]

2 hours ago, carmine said:

Its completely futile.  They don't even have enough self respect to realize how bad it looks on them that its foreigners trying to keep their country clean, being paid nothing whilst they sit back on their lazy <deleted> watching .  Thats the sum of it.  

 

Apologies if this offends you but its exactly the way it is and they will simply view those cleaning the beach as idiots for doing it, whilst continuing to stub out cigarettes and dump litter.  

 

Doesn't offend me at all.  I do something similar when I rent a canoe at Lumpini Park and carry a basket and a litter grabber.  I started doing it because just paddling around for the exercise gets boring (and I need the upper body exercise after a bypass).  And since I can't fish there, picking up litter adds a little challenge to my boat control skills.  Nowadays, when I show up I get thumbs up and smiles from half a dozen vendors even before I'm on the water, and more from random strangers on the bank. 

 

I'm sure some subset of the population sees me as an idiot and I really don't give a rat about what they think.  I don't do it for them.  I do it for me. 

 

And, back on topic, somebody has to start down the path to being the hundredth monkey (look it up) that modifies cultural behavior.  

 

[carmine]

45 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

Doesn't offend me at all.  I do something similar when I rent a canoe at Lumpini Park and carry a basket and a litter grabber.  I started doing it because just paddling around for the exercise gets boring (and I need the upper body exercise after a bypass).  And since I can't fish there, picking up litter adds a little challenge to my boat control skills.  Nowadays, when I show up I get thumbs up and smiles from half a dozen vendors even before I'm on the water, and more from random strangers on the bank. 

 

I'm sure some subset of the population sees me as an idiot and I really don't give a rat about what they think.  I don't do it for them.  I do it for me. 

 

And, back on topic, somebody has to start down the path to being the hundredth monkey (look it up) that modifies cultural behavior.  

 

I wish more people here had your attitude, but unfortunately its a nation of litter bugs from all generations unable to fathom the importance of protecting the environment and having no interest in doing so.  With a financial incentive you might see some change.