Midweek Rant: Would you smile at the morgue Thai people?

 

FILE photo

 

I haven’t ranted for a while…I’ve been on Ranting R and R for the sake of my health.

 

But now I am as mad as hell.

 

Why?

 

The praise heaped on the Pattaya cops – outside the police station no less – for letting two school kids go for not wearing helmets on their motorcycle.

 

Instead they let them pick up some litter before saluting, receiving the obligatory wai and sending them on their happy way.

 

Perhaps not today, but ultimately they are pretty much sending them to their deaths.

 

Pattaya News – like in so many stories of this ilk before – praised the cops for their kind attitude. And said that any Thai people who saw this were full of admiration.

 

In the last year we have seen cops make kids do press-ups and jumping jacks. Whooppee do!

 

This is sending out the absolute wrong message in a country whose national disgrace is the death toll on the roads.

 

With many of those needlessly dying being children on their way to and from school without helmets.

 

Nobody should be praising these clowns. They should be condemned – by society and by their chiefs. And made to do their jobs.

 

What they should have done is confiscate the bike and make the kids go home – if they didn’t have money – buy a helmet and come back later.

 

That way they would have been late for school, inconvenienced and perhaps punished or admonished by their teacher. And actually learnt something – that they should always wear a helmet in the future for their own good.

 

Instead – kids being kids – they have learnt squat. Nothing. I was a teacher for thirty years in Thailand. I wasn’t the strictest, but I upheld the rules when I had to – the kids respected me for that.

 

Children don’t respect a teacher who lets them do as they please. Even my five year old knows right from wrong at every turn.

 

These young people will do the same next time, and the next, and the next all the way into adulthood as they are let off or learn to buy their way off the rap.

 

Until they end up as a piece of meat in the morgue – another statistic in the 25,000 deaths on the nation’s roads that are Thailand’s shame.

 

The Thai people need to stop smiling when the police do something supposedly nice. It’s not – it’s incredibly irresponsible – and detrimental for the young people who are tomorrow’s future.

 

Some future.

 

The Thais should reserve their praise – their smiles, wai’s and back slapping – for a jurisdiction where the police uphold the law. Where the officers stop every helmetless person – adult or young – and make all of them get protection while the bike is impounded.

 

Praise a jurisdiction where people who are too young to ride are stopped from riding, too.

 

Then they can smile when that jurisdiction inevitably has less people dying needlessly from road accidents.

 

Sure, helmets are not the only thing responsible for the death toll but they are very important. I have been riding a bike for 30 years, too, in Thailand and wouldn’t go out without one. It is sheer irresponsibility of the police and parents to allow young people to do that.

 

I’d just like to say to the people who think the police did the kids a favor and smiled:

 

Go to the morgue – ask to see the latest child’s head in pieces on the slab all because they didn’t wear a helmet.

 

See if you are smiling then.

 

Rooster

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2018-03-07

Good rant,what about th crazy young guys i see in my town with noisy exhausts,going 90-100kmh down a busy 2 lane high street,[unlike most Thai towns we have only a single lane in either direction] many of them i think are destined to end up in the morgue.As for the school girls it is beyond a joke.The cops involved should be suspended for failing to carry out what they are employed[ supposedly] to do which is maintain the law.

OP, that is normal Thai police thinking and for sure many a guy in "uniform" sends his underage kids to school on a m/cycle...Just the way it is...Sadly..

24 minutes ago, missoura said:

From what I see by me in the boonies  the driver here is quite mature!!

The  passenger is  more likely to be driving by me.

I can't understand the problem here.  Some people on here seem to think that taking money is the best form of punishment.  Maybe in the west that might be the case.  Making Thai people pick up litter or do pressups at the side of the road causes much more loss of face and they are less likely to do the same thing again than if you just take 200 baht off them (actually their family, not them) which won't affect them at all.  Also picking up litter is much better for everybody, compared to giving 200 baht to the police which only benefits the police.

Used to have a neighbor in our moo bahn who had a stunningly beautiful 14 year old daughter, who rode a new motorbike to school everyday, without a helmet.

One day I asked the man (who spoke good English) if he loved his daughter.  He looked at me like I was crazy and said: "That's a stupid question.  Of course I love her!".

I told him calmly: "No you don't. And do you know why?"

of course he wanted to know.

"Ok, first, you let her ride a motorbike at 14, when the legal age is 15.  Second, you let her ride with no helmet.  So, you don't love her enough to keep her alive." 

He got totally pissed and wouldn't talk to me after that.  Almost exactly a month later she was involved in an accident, and her head was split open like a dropped pumpkin, killing her instantly.  My wife's in-law is a traffic cop and happened to be one of the first on the scene, and took pictures. 

A few days later the neighbor saw me and went totally crazy, saying it was my fault, and that I had put a curse on his daughter.  My Thai wife got in his face and told him the death of his daughter was strictly HIS fault for letting her ride before she was legally allowed, and then to do so without a helmet. A couple of others in the moo bahn backed my wife.  A week late, the man and his wife had moved out and put their house up for sale. 

Edited March 7, 20188 yr by Just1Voice

3 minutes ago, Just1Voice said:

Used to have a neighbor in our moo bahn who had a stunningly beautiful 14 year old daughter, who rode a new motorbike to school everyday, without a helmet.......................

 

It seems to be a Parenting issue .

Some Parents feel that being a good Parent is letting their kids do whatever  they want and stopping them doing something is being mean .

  Also they have little concept of cause and effect , things just happen and they have no power to influence things .

   If their kids going to die in a motorbike accident, then they will and theres nothing that they can do to stop it .

3 minutes ago, sanemax said:

It seems to be a Parenting issue .

Some Parents feel that being a good Parent is letting their kids do whatever  they want and stopping them doing something is being mean .

  Also they have little concept of cause and effect , things just happen and they have no power to influence things .

   If their kids going to die in a motorbike accident, then they will and theres nothing that they can do to stop it .

Unfortunately, this is true.  I have heard so many times - "It was fate" - when, in reality, it was human failure. 

 

Dear Rooster, I do not like all your articles, but this one is absolutely right, how the kids will ever learn to follow the law and more important to taking care of their life? 

Good, good, good!!!

A tough rant, but a justified one as it succeeds in driving home an important message. Unfortunately, practically no local will read it, comprehend it, take it to heart and spread the word.  

2 hours ago, dfdgfdfdgs said:

I can't understand the problem here.  Some people on here seem to think that taking money is the best form of punishment.  Maybe in the west that might be the case.  Making Thai people pick up litter or do pressups at the side of the road causes much more loss of face and they are less likely to do the same thing again than if you just take 200 baht off them (actually their family, not them) which won't affect them at all.  Also picking up litter is much better for everybody, compared to giving 200 baht to the police which only benefits the police.

I think however that a more severe punishment would be of value, like washing the corpses of motorbike accident victims who drove without a helmet.

Forget the rants on here, or heavy fines on the roads etc, the ONLY solution is to get the Police off their butts and out on the roads and actually doing a bit of policing and stopping this nonsense at the outset.  They should also hold the Teachers responsible for allowing these kids to ride their bikes in to school, park them up in a car park provided and then allow them to ride them out again and to top it off you will see a Policeman doing traffic control, but sod all else!

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Would you smile at the morgue Thai people?

For a moment I thought you were referring to those drunk driver offenders who were ordered to spend time in the morgues to witness the results of the road carnage in the forlorn hope it may improve their driving habits. 

Another road safety initiative left to whither on the vine.

 

3 hours ago, dfdgfdfdgs said:

I can't understand the problem here.  Some people on here seem to think that taking money is the best form of punishment.  Maybe in the west that might be the case.  Making Thai people pick up litter or do pressups at the side of the road causes much more loss of face and they are less likely to do the same thing again than if you just take 200 baht off them (actually their family, not them) which won't affect them at all.  Also picking up litter is much better for everybody, compared to giving 200 baht to the police which only benefits the police.

Supposing that the story had continued saying :- "The kids went off and 500 metres down the road they were involved in a crash and died from head injuries"  Would you have written the same post?

Any policeman allowing them to drive off without helmets is aiding and abetting a crime.

3 hours ago, dfdgfdfdgs said:

I can't understand the problem here.  Some people on here seem to think that taking money is the best form of punishment.  Maybe in the west that might be the case.  Making Thai people pick up litter or do pressups at the side of the road causes much more loss of face and they are less likely to do the same thing again than if you just take 200 baht off them (actually their family, not them) which won't affect them at all.  Also picking up litter is much better for everybody, compared to giving 200 baht to the police which only benefits the police.

When I was a kid I couldn't lose face, I doubt if Thai kids were that bothered about clearing rubbish and losing face, but the kids mum would not like a bill from the Bill...

Agreed,,, a good rant but you are wasting your time preaching to the choir on this forum.

i will ask the question, if you are Thai & you read this please reply with a     TTTTTTTT

No cheating all you farang husbands

1 hour ago, robertson468 said:

Forget the rants on here, or heavy fines on the roads etc, the ONLY solution is to get the Police off their butts and out on the roads and actually doing a bit of policing and stopping this nonsense at the outset.  They should also hold the Teachers responsible for allowing these kids to ride their bikes in to school, park them up in a car park provided and then allow them to ride them out again and to top it off you will see a Policeman doing traffic control, but sod all else!

 The teachers do not seem to have a problem when three speeding kids on one bike are racing on school campus, because that's the way how they grew up. Do they not start to think when so many kids can't go to school, well only the lucky ones who have survived?

 

  I had my first "bigger bike", a Honda Dax with 70 cc when I was 14, but could only drive on some fields, because I had to wait until I was 18 and needed a proper license for it.

 

  I had my first big bike, a Honda CB 750 Four when I was 18, wearing a helmet at this time was not law, so we drove with high speed without one. But almost all of us saw a deadly bike accident and we started to wear helmets,  short before it became the law.

 

  i know that it's normal when young people drive like there'd be no death, so the teachers have to teach them what can happen if anybody makes a mistake. But where did the teachers get their education from? From other teachers with the same mistakes, so scared to lose face and not able to teach their kids what kids should really know. And that's for sure not copying from the board into a notebook.

 

   

  It's idiotic to let a 10 year old drive a 125 cc , or bigger bike, just because it's convenient for somebody else. At school, they check their hair, their fingernails, they way they are dressed, but a helmet on a bike is not needed?

 

   It's the education that lacks way behind and the guys at the top don't know what they are doing, they are soldiers. So many families receive a deadly wake up call when kids don't come home from school. I only see the ones who've survived an accident when they come back to school. 

 

But I also saw two teenagers dying, on a road inside the city, they didn't wear a helmet and could still be alive. I could see parts of their brains and I felt so helpless.

 

A government, or people from the government that doesn't protect, and care for the weakest part, the kids, is a useless government with always new plans to become a hub of something.

 

  But in reality it's the hub of the death for underage kids. The hub of always filled morgues. 

Edited March 7, 20188 yr by jenny2017

2 hours ago, Misterwhisper said:

A tough rant, but a justified one as it succeeds in driving home an important message. Unfortunately, practically no local will read it, comprehend it, take it to heart and spread the word.  

Unfortunately, you're so right. 

 

From the top "hierarchy" down, it seems no one really gives a s**t.

 

To quote the pop group group Queen, Another One Bites The Dust. 

 

I've told my children that is my chosen funeral song. 

 

Edited March 7, 20188 yr by lvr181
Additional comment

6 hours ago, dfdgfdfdgs said:

.....Making Thai people pick up litter or do pressups at the side of the road causes much more loss of face and they are less likely to do the same thing again than if you just take 200 baht off them.....

excellent idea.

 

call the parents.  hold the kids until they arrive.  make the parents

pick up garbage on the roadside while the neighbors drive by.

and give the kids some ice cream and soda to enjoy while they

watch their parents paying for their sins.

Liked your mid week rant, especially when there is a story of the BurinRam student losing his life. Not wearing a helmet, and getting hit by a careless, motorbike driver who hit him and caused him to get run over by a passing truck. It seemed that the other driver had no concern of what he had just caused, just picked up his phone, then bike and stood around. Not even going over to see how badly injured the student was.  What a country this is with the apparent attitudes of drivers who cause accidents at any age,, like they have no concept of, their responsibility.

Geezer

Edited March 7, 20188 yr by Stargrazer9889
errors

Agree about the Buriram incident,though the guy could have been in shock,though he seems quite co -ordinated. Reminds me of Miss Na ayuttya texting after she had just crashed and plunged a van over an elevated road causing 11 deaths,in the end she ended up sentenced to some hours community work which she appealed against,as she is from a very rich family i doubt she actually did any.