Video: Bullying the poor or upholding the law? Fruit seller smashes her own cart in Bangkok

[webfact]

 Video: Bullying the poor or upholding the law? Fruit seller smashes her own cart in Bangkok 

 

video screenshot

 

A video posted to Facebook showed a female fruit seller being arrested by tessakit (municipal authority) workers in the Lat Prao area of Bangkok. 

 

But she does not go quietly - she smashes up her cart that is laden with fruit. 

 

She yells: "I'm poor - I'm just trying to make a living". 

 

The poster of the clip suggested she was being bullied and called for people to share the video to shame the tessakit. 

 

But comment was divided. 

 

Naphee Phijit slammed the tessakit as "naa hee" suggesting they resembled a female sexual organ. 

 

While several others said the law is the law. 

 

Yousif Dafalla said: "She must be selling in a prohibited area. It's not bullying". 

 

Others suggested she should go to a designated place to sell her fruit and smashing up her own cart would just cause her more unnecessary expense on top of the fine.

 

Thaivisa notes that the military government in Thailand have cleaned up many areas in Bangkok previously occupied by street hawkers. 

 

Some favor the action while others say it is sucking the lifeblood and character out of the city.

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2018-11-13

 

[SkyNets]

One less on the side road to drive around. Imagine if they asked her to pay small business tax!

Edited November 13, 2018 by SkyNets

[colinneil]

Gawd help her husband when she gets home, he will get serious grief, and will have no idea what hes done wrong.

[petermik]

7 hours ago, colinneil said:

Gawd help her husband when she gets home, he will get serious grief, and will have no idea what hes done wrong.

She was having one of her monthly dark days.....stay clear all males

[CharlieH]

Bound to happen when people have been allowed to do things a certain way for generations then someone decides its going to be different.

 

Not the first wont be the last.????

[CLW]

There is more than we can see or hear in this story.
AFAIK mobile carts are still allowed to sell.
Unfortunately this shows the behaviour of most thais if they are confronted with doing something wrong against their mind or the law.
Thailand - Land of the free where it's citizens can do all they want.
By the way I'm PRO street food and think it's a part of Bangkok culture.

[hotchilli]

2 hours ago, petermik said:

She was having one of her monthly dark days.....stay clear all males

For Christ's sake don't even go there.... I hope she's well past breeding !

[Charlesed]

1 hour ago, CLW said:

There is more than we can see or hear in this story.
AFAIK mobile carts are still allowed to sell.
Unfortunately this shows the behaviour of most thais if they are confronted with doing something wrong against their mind or the law.
Thailand - Land of the free where it's citizens can do all they want.
By the way I'm PRO street food and think it's a part of Bangkok culture.

I was always pro street vendors, but in some areas they block the whole sidewalk! If you need to walk their everyday it's quite annoying. 

[SupermarineS6B]

Very sad, the woman's just trying to scratch a living.............It's a sad country that turns on its own in hard times......

[CLW]

I was always pro street vendors, but in some areas they block the whole sidewalk! If you need to walk their everyday it's quite annoying. 

Agree with you.
But in my Soi they cleared one side (it's not a dedicated footpath or raised pavement) of the street from vendors but now motorcycles are parking there 24/7 and blocking the way equally.
Therefore the effect has been zero.

[PremiumLane]

Guess the Thais can't win on this forum, one minute they are all lazy, however if they bust their arse trying to make ends meet and are being pushed out by the rich, then it is their fault.  

How would you feel having to work hard with not many other options for you to make money, other than being a slave in some crap-hole of a factory.  

[TKDfella]

I only go to BKK when it's absolutely necessary so I'm not qualified to pass an opinion. However, where I live there are some vendors selling food but I find the biggest culprits are shops in the town. Not satisfied with displaying their goods in the shop front but they spread them out on the pavement too. I don't see any police from the station in town telling them to remove their goods from the sidewalk.

[OneMoreFarang]

She definitely has a temper problem.

Someone should tell her staying cool is the Thai way. Behaving like that makes it only worse.

[NoshowJones]

41 minutes ago, TKDfella said:

I only go to BKK when it's absolutely necessary so I'm not qualified to pass an opinion. However, where I live there are some vendors selling food but I find the biggest culprits are shops in the town. Not satisfied with displaying their goods in the shop front but they spread them out on the pavement too. I don't see any police from the station in town telling them to remove their goods from the sidewalk.

and you have no idea why?

[Briggsy]

Block the pavement, block the traffic. One vendor comes, next week there are 20. When challenged, they throw a planned and manipulative hissy fit to try to win sympathy.

[champers]

1 hour ago, SupermarineS6B said:

Very sad, the woman's just trying to scratch a living.............It's a sad country that turns on its own in hard times......

Low hanging fruit (sorry for the pun).

[DJ54]

It was hilarious to watch....

[a977]

13 hours ago, SupermarineS6B said:

Very sad, the woman's just trying to scratch a living.............It's a sad country that turns on its own in hard times......

This is not a case of hard times it is a case of I'm No 1 and I don't give a <deleted> about the law, if the lady had of been selling in a designated area with her permit to sell!!!! and had paid all her taxes she would not find herself in this situation. As we all know Bangkok is experiencing major traffic problems at the moment and these people with their push carts only compound the problem.

[ToddinChonburi]

Many areas have built nice big market places for these people to go sell but they still want to block sidewalks and traffic lanes because they are so selfish. Just look around the 7-11's in the morning and evening.  what a mess.

[Bundooman]

I pity the poor recipients of the fruit in the cart, showered with glass. She won't dump it - probably rinse it all off and sell it somewhere else tomorrow.

 

................or give it to her husband when he p..... her off when she arrives home and finds he's asleep, and an empty Lao Khao bottle lying beside him!

[Lancashirelad]

"I'm poor"  A lady I know in Chiang Mai used to have a fruit cart. She did very well out of it. Only worked a few hours a day. Made enough to rent a building and set her up her own coffee shop.

[lamyai3]

On 11/13/2018 at 1:07 PM, webfact said:

Naphee Phijit slammed the tessakit as "naa hee" suggesting they resembled a female sexual organ. 

This expression works equally well translated directly into English, where it rhymes with "punt race"... 

[SupermarineS6B]

On ‎11‎/‎14‎/‎2018 at 6:27 AM, a977 said:

This is not a case of hard times it is a case of I'm No 1 and I don't give a <deleted> about the law, if the lady had of been selling in a designated area with her permit to sell!!!! and had paid all her taxes she would not find herself in this situation. As we all know Bangkok is experiencing major traffic problems at the moment and these people with their push carts only compound the problem.

Not a case of hard times, where do you live in a well ? The woman probably lives in a box on the side of the railway and this meagre business is the only way she can scratch a living, and i don't suppose the taxes you're talking about are exactly legal ones......As for the reference to Bangkok traffic, it's a damn site better now than it was before the MRT and the BTS, it's just a shame that people don't use the public transport systems more, but then again that would be low so.........   where's the humanity ? 

[scorecard]

On 11/13/2018 at 4:59 PM, Charlesed said:

I was always pro street vendors, but in some areas they block the whole sidewalk! If you need to walk their everyday it's quite annoying. 

Yep, the vendors selling clothes, shoes, watches etc on Ramkhamhaeng road near my abode were really blocking the very busy footpaths causing lots of folks, some with little kids to walk on the actual road among the fast dense traffic, but after many incidents the police and more so the army got them out.

 

But now the same area all overtaken with all sorts of food carts and rubbish and old oil being dumped everywhere.

 

 

[Lancashirelad]

2 hours ago, SupermarineS6B said:

Not a case of hard times, where do you live in a well ? The woman probably lives in a box on the side of the railway and this meagre business is the only way she can scratch a living, and i don't suppose the taxes you're talking about are exactly legal ones......As for the reference to Bangkok traffic, it's a damn site better now than it was before the MRT and the BTS, it's just a shame that people don't use the public transport systems more, but then again that would be low so.........   where's the humanity ? 

Have you read my post #21 above?

 

Have you been on the BTS lately? It's rare to get a seat these days unless boarding at or near a terminus and at busy times sometimes you cannot even get on the first train to arrive ........... and you want MORE people to use it?

[SupermarineS6B]

3 hours ago, scorecard said:

Yep, the vendors selling clothes, shoes, watches etc on Ramkhamhaeng road near my abode were really blocking the very busy footpaths causing lots of folks, some with little kids to walk on the actual road among the fast dense traffic, but after many incidents the police and more so the army got them out.

 

But now the same area all overtaken with all sorts of food carts and rubbish and old oil being dumped everywhere.

 

 

Yep, and they've also got rid of most of the night life around Bangkok..... Good job boys....... no street bars, discos, (Good ones that is), food courts, (Soi 7) bars from soi 4 to Onnut closed, food carts........ Hell of a job, but don't worry we'll give you a few visas for three months and all will be ok...... Believe it or not i've just had a week in Penang and the night life was better than Bangkok, better music and beer's just as cheap...... plus the food's great....  

[holy cow cm]

On 11/13/2018 at 1:17 PM, SkyNets said:

One less on the side road to drive around. Imagine if they asked her to pay small business tax!

BS. You obviously have not been in this country long. It is a totalitarian act only and tax would be very very very little. Hard to make money as it is for them. 

[moontang]

I feel most sorry for the folks who ate the glass fragments....you can bet they didn't bin it.  Our fruit cart guy grosses 5000 per day...might be clearing two thousand...not bad.