Two young boys drown trying to cool down in Sa Kaew pond

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Two young boys drown trying to cool down in Sa Kaew pond

By The Nation

 

Picture: Daily News

 

Two young boys drowned on Monday after they sneaked from their homes in Sa Kaew’s Wattana Nakhon district to swim in a village pond, police said.
 

Police said the two boys sneaked out to swim in the public pond of Ban Sub Mol village in Tambon Chong Koom to cool off in the afternoon.

The two boys were identified as Kittipop Ngamlamom, 5 and Tommy Oliverville, 6.

 

Discovering that the boys had disappeared, their mothers found sandals near the pond and sought help from a local foundation.

 

Rescuers later located the bodies in the pond bed, but were unable to resuscitate them. The bodies were sent for autopsy at the district hospital and released to relatives for funeral services.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30368190

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-04-23

[Denim]

Tragic. 

[Lupatria]

We never had to bow down to a flag and sing the national anthem in school, but swimming lessons were mandatory... where would a parent with common sense set the priority?

[Moonlover]

43 minutes ago, Lupatria said:

We never had to bow down to a flag and sing the national anthem in school, but swimming lessons were mandatory... where would a parent with common sense set the priority?

Once again, western standards being inappropriately applied to Thailand, indeed to Asia as a whole.

 

Unless family life, in Asia revolves around the sea or other major bodies of water, i.e. fishing communities virtually no one learns to swim. It is not in their culture, their DNA if you will.

 

If parents don't swim it would never occur to them to have their children taught and in rural communities, the facilities are not available anyway. Nor the money to provide them or use them.

 

The village ponds are dangerous as are the local rivers and streams, but unfortunately they are so attractive to kids especially in this hot weather. And kids will be kids won't they.

 

I see kids playing in the river here most days when out on my morning walk. And I recall doing the same when I was young. And before anyone picks up on that, my parents could not swim and I was never taught. I had to learn myself.

 

 

[cardinalblue]

According to moonlover, no money no facilities no foresight so let them drown....

 

so let’s stop inappropriately applying western standards to the Thai culture....

 

it’s the Thai way....3 youngsters drown on average every day in LOS...

 

The thai culture loves traditions, customs and ceremonies....let it be

[Lupatria]

29 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

If parents don't swim it would never occur to them to have their children taught and in rural communities, the facilities are not available anyway. Nor the money to provide them or use them.

I partly agree with you, but how much does cost a caring parent to teach a kid to swim?

[Moonlover]

23 minutes ago, cardinalblue said:

According to moonlover, no money no facilities no foresight so let them drown....

 

so let’s stop inappropriately applying western standards to the Thai culture....

 

it’s the Thai way....3 youngsters drown on average every day in LOS...let it be

Which is a whole lot less than die on the roads each day. Are we seeing any progress being made there?

[Moonlover]

23 minutes ago, Lupatria said:

49 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

If parents don't swim it would never occur to them to have their children taught and in rural communities, the facilities are not available anyway. Nor the money to provide them or use them.

22 minutes ago, Lupatria said:

I partly agree with you, but how much does cost a caring parent to teach a kid to swim?

When a family has 300 to 600 THB a day to survive on, swimming lessons in a none existent facility by a none existent coach is simply out of the question.

 

Nice thought Lupatria, but in reality it just cannot happen.

[Benmart]

1 hour ago, cardinalblue said:

According to moonlover, no money no facilities no foresight so let them drown....

 

so let’s stop inappropriately applying western standards to the Thai culture....

 

it’s the Thai way....3 youngsters drown on average every day in LOS...

 

The thai culture loves traditions, customs and ceremonies....let it be

"According to moonlover, no money no facilities no foresight so let them drown....". Your words, not his. 

[Benmart]

1 hour ago, Lupatria said:

I partly agree with you, but how much does cost a caring parent to teach a kid to swim?

In lieu of asking, if you are truely concerned, do some research and post your findings here. Better yet, sponsoring a child's swimming lessons would be marvelous.

 

I help support a rural school in Cambodia and various projects elsewhere. Action isn't that expensive, but not as cheap as internet chatter.

[tlandtday]

very sad

 

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, Lupatria said:

We never had to bow down to a flag and sing the national anthem in school, but swimming lessons were mandatory... where would a parent with common sense set the priority?

Rhetorical question... you're in Thailand.

[Tropposurfer]

11 minutes ago, tlandtday said:

very sad

 

 

11 minutes ago, tlandtday said:

very sad

 

yes tragic such young innocent kids. Horrible. Yes TV folks Thailand needs govt programs across the country to teach swimming in schools. e.g. Do The five and stay alive as well as swimming lessons where whole classes of kids are taken to a pool and taught how to swim and safety around water.

I know its off-topic but so many young folks and children die this way too i.e.: Thailand needs a huge new multi-pronged approach for driver ed and law enforcement of road rules. 

[hansnl]

3 hours ago, Lupatria said:

We never had to bow down to a flag and sing the national anthem in school, but swimming lessons were mandatory... where would a parent with common sense set the priority?

You said it yourself, the school was not teaching to swim.

A parent has no real influence on the school's program.

[Fred31]

3 hours ago, Lupatria said:

We never had to bow down to a flag and sing the national anthem in school, but swimming lessons were mandatory... where would a parent with common sense set the priority?

Unfeeling jerk, does being so nasty make you happy?

[Dumbastheycome]

2 hours ago, cardinalblue said:

According to moonlover, no money no facilities no foresight so let them drown....

 

so let’s stop inappropriately applying western standards to the Thai culture....

 

it’s the Thai way....3 youngsters drown on average every day in LOS...

 

The thai culture loves traditions, customs and ceremonies....let it be

Actually....yes. Let it be.

[ronrat]

My TGFs local primary school has a 30 metre 6 lane swimming pool. It is in Sa Keaw Her 2 kids and niece are all now more than competent swimmers. They have a swimming carnivals for the district once a year and her neice ran 2nd in a race and won 1000 baht.

 

This may have been a tragic accident. One kid gets his foot caught and his mate tried to save him.

 

A Navy diver died in the cave rescue so some people need to pull their head in and stop blaming everyone .

[oobar]

4 hours ago, Moonlover said:

5 hours ago, Lupatria said:

We never had to bow down to a flag and sing the national anthem in school, but swimming lessons were mandatory... where would a parent with common sense set the priority?

Once again, western standards being inappropriately applied to Thailand, indeed to Asia as a whole.

Actually, once again intelligence and reason being appropriately applied to an issue Thais largely ignore.

[toenail]

4 hours ago, Lupatria said:

I partly agree with you, but how much does cost a caring parent to teach a kid to swim?

Rural schools manage to find money in their budget to spend on sport and holiday pageantry ( costumes and such) so the school could bus students to where a pool is located ( hotel or college) and teach the students a basic “dog paddle” and about water safety. Can’t the local town Buddhist wat spend some of the money to send the village kids somewhere to learn how to swim? It seems they’re always spending money on new buildings, more statues, or a more decorative wall. 

My parents didn’t teach me but it was the community YMCA. - 

[Mukdahanman]

I am the only one wondering how you can drown in a pond? 

I mean, how deep was it. Presumably they got in at the edge, was there a sudden drop in depth. I would love to understand the circumstances more, to see how this tragedy might have been avoided.

[mike787]

unnecessary!  RIP

[PerkinsCuthbert]

1 hour ago, Mukdahanman said:

I am the only one wondering how you can drown in a pond? 

I mean, how deep was it. Presumably they got in at the edge, was there a sudden drop in depth. I would love to understand the circumstances more, to see how this tragedy might have been avoided.

Remarkably, people occasionally drown in puddles.

[PerkinsCuthbert]

4 hours ago, Dumbastheycome said:

Actually....yes. Let it be.

On the whole I am with you on this issue; as farangs with western ways of thinking, we naturally come up against aspects of Asian, and in particular Thai, culture which are anathema to us. We may rant and rail against this aspect or that - in fact many threads on ThaiVisa do precisely this - but ultimately we must buy the whole package and learn to accept the way things are to some degree, else we become dissatisfied and our lives become intolerable here. We may make a small difference here or there, ease a family's circumstances or teach a skill or two to the community, but it is us who must change as much if not more than them. That is not to say I am fatalistic in the extreme, merely that in order to live here contentedly we have to accept there are some things over which we will never have much influence. I would commend to readers the example of Father Joe of the Mercy Mission in Klong Toey, Bangkok, as an instance of what I am trying to express.

[Classic Ray]

As a person who spent most of their life in the west, I feel it incumbent on me to help a less sophisticated society learn some of the lessons we did to at least allow more of the children to grow up and have an enjoyable life.

 

We made using child seats,  seat belts and crash helmets compulsory and funded road safety campaigns to reduce the appalling waste of lives and financial costs to the state of caring for brain damaged victims and supporting their dependents.

 

We provided swimming lessons and sex and religious education at schools to reduce drowning, unwanted pregnancies, AIDS, and bigotry and hatred.

 

We used to not care about these things and suffered the consequences. Why is giving the benefit of our experience to Thai people wrong? Are we really meant to stand by and just watch the carnage?

 

I for one want my Thai children to grow up safe and not be slaughtered in a road collision because no one here, police or public,  can be bothered to enforce the law or undertake driver education. I should not have to leave the country to make this happen.

[bbbbooboo]

“It’s the Thai way....3 youngsters drown onaverage every day in LOS”...( thanks to Benmart)

Hmmm.....If the above is true nothing can be done. It’s an identical situation to their ongoing needless road slaughter. TIT

[Moonlover]

On ‎4‎/‎23‎/‎2019 at 9:20 PM, Mukdahanman said:

I am the only one wondering how you can drown in a pond? 

I mean, how deep was it. Presumably they got in at the edge, was there a sudden drop in depth. I would love to understand the circumstances more, to see how this tragedy might have been avoided.

It is a common misconception that drowning is associated with depth. But this is not the case at all. These village ponds are not usually deep, but they have muddy bottoms and, crucially sloping muddy sidewalls.

 

Getting in is easy, but getting out again can be very difficult and a small kid can become tired and panicky when trying to do so.

 

Most of us have had the experience of getting one foot stuck in mud and when you try to pull it out, the other foot gets stuck. When someone is in the water this effect can quickly deteriorate into a life threating situation. And panic is what often kills in drowning accidents.

 

I am not theorising here either. I very nearly drowned myself in our local canal when I was young in just these circumstances, so I can well understand how these tragic deaths occur.