The week that was in Thailand news: Up to no good in Thailand - but the locals give as good as they get!

 

 

Internet wisdom - now there's an oxymoron - would have us believe that most every foreigner living in Thailand is up to no good. For every immigrant or visitor clearing up a beach or volunteering for charitable causes there are dozens of others holding up exchange booths, scamming Thai women or even dispatching the locals in a hail of bullets.

 

Thailand appears to be a cesspool where the world's miscreants gather and behave atrociously. Or so it seems....

 

Rooster's early years in the kingdom tended to reinforce this narrative. I hung around the Malaysia Hotel, a notorious centre for the disreputable. My mates included a likeable but dodgy character from Sierra Leone who always seemed to be getting back from Bangladesh with hemorrhoids. He had plenty of money to treat the condition and mentioned something about meeting a gold toting dude who bent him over in the toilets.

 

A flash Canadian seemed to be able to afford a luxury flat though he had no resource to income and no apparent job while a Frenchman with a fancy watch was always going shopping with credit cards someone kindly sent him from hotels in Chiang Mai.

 

Leaving the tourist ghetto in the mid 1980s a dentist friend and I rented a charming wooden bungalow over a pond in a soi off Thong Lor. We hoped to leave behind the shady nature of our early Thailand days by moving up in the world transferring to the leafy suburbs of Sukhumvit Road.

 

For a pittance of a rent we lived an idyllic (if mosquito bedeviled) existence taking pictures of our Thai girlfriends lounging on the balcony surrounded by duckweed.  A friend said he'd like to share the rent but he only lasted a day as he was accosted by a large snake in the outside toilet. Wuss!!

 

Then our Thai upbringing surrounded by miscreants came back to haunt. This was in the form of a grey haired octogenarian who was always wandering suspiciously round the compound. Horror - we found out he was German.

 

Being fair-minded Englishmen we gave him the neutral nickname of Adolf von Ribbentrop.

 

We would sit up late into the night, giggling and smoking, imagining that immigration would be arriving in the morning to serve him a warrant issued in Berlin for being the Beast of Belsen.  Or perhaps he would be bundled into a Bangkok taxi before nightfall by agents of Mossad and spirited off to a public trial in Jerusalem.

 

We never got to find out what happened to him. My housemate had a financial disagreement with his woman. She was a seamstress who had another thread to her life freelancing at the Thermae Coffee Shop. The barney convinced my pal that "Nut" (who always lived up to her name) would plant heroin in the rafters then call the Thong Lor constabulary.

 

Even in those days the officers at Thong Lor were the very last house guests one would desire, so we hotfooted it west to Soi 39 where we met another form of land based shark - an Indian woman and her family who had a small block of flats. It seemed ideal as it was even nearer to Soi Cowboy.

 

The monthly rent of 5,500 baht was a bit steep but we could surely bargain it done. She smiled benignly and opened her purse and we reluctantly were obliged to deposit precisely 5,500 baht in its murky depths.

 

We were now beginning to move away from the company of shady foreigners into the much darker and mischievous world of long term immigrant families and the native Thais themselves. Reading Thai crime magazines confirmed to me that the belief Thailand was dragged down by foreigners was patently untrue. They actually helped to raise the tone!

 

Following the news via an online site like Thaivisa we are constantly bombarded by a bias towards reporting news about lawbreaking foreigners. Many posters are hoodwinked into believing that Thailand is a hotbed of crime perpetrated by the dregs of the Western world and every single visitor from Nigeria. I'm sure if these posters went to the Costa del Sol they'd get more balance in their lives.

 

That said it was another week marvelling at foreigners transgressing in the kingdom. Leading the way was news that a German - incongruously called Richard - who had dumped the body of an elderly compatriot in a klong near Bang Saen earlier in the year. He appeared to have been living off the old lady's pension and when she fell over in the bathroom he bundled her in a crate and carted her off to the canal in a motorcycle sidecar. As you do.....

 

Overstaying foreigners are seen by some on the forum as the lowest of the low. They "don't play by the rules" and "make life difficult for us law abiding ones" the moaners burble incessantly. You can almost see their snitching fingers hovering over the 1178 immigration hotline.

 

One such target for their ire was the Brit caught on a five year overstay in Koh Lipe. An informant had dobbed in the dive instructor. The 57 year old compounded the sense of outrage and upped the schadenfreude by giving a "V for Victory" salute to the Naew Na cameras recording his arrest for posterity.

 

At least being a diver he should be able to sneak back into Thailand under water where even the biometrics technology can't stretch out its octopus like tentacles.

 

Apropos Big Oud, immigration chief Lt-Gen Sompong Chingduang, reported that 45,000 foreigners had been nabbed recently, 1000 put on blacklists and 700 arrested on warrants. Plenty of grist to the mill for those convinced that farang and felony are "F" word bedfellows.

 

The figures seemed to have been plucked from the ether by the chief though it could be that he plans on heading the TAT or taking over from Tourism Minister Phiphat when the immigration trough has been emptied. Big Oud - appropriately enough the sound of a snuffling pig - added that the arrests were made at Thailand's 16 international airports. Sixteen! He either made that up or was poorly advised by his vinyl sign maker.

 

Obviously blaming foreigners for a nation's ills is a convenient way to find scapegoats to deflect from a country's deficiencies. For Big Oud it will help to justify his position. Rooster disagrees that there is a high level of xenophobia in Thailand, even that what there is has increased in recent years. I have never experienced it and neither has my wide circle of friends and I don't believe many Thais give such claims any credence.

 

In Thailand the people are more than aware of who is to blame for most of the nation's injustices and ills - they are among them and are mostly not foreigners. Politicians, corrupt officialdom, police, persons of wealth and influence - you name it. The Thais are far better informed that many foreigners believe. The press may not be endowed with investigative know-how but they are not as shackled as many think.

 

Many foreigners misunderstand this because the Thais either do not discuss issues with them, lack the skills from their education system to present coherent arguments or there is simply a language barrier.

 

For those of us who speak - but principally read - Thai, the level of understanding of what is happening in the country is patently obvious. If you have any doubts about what Thais were discussing this week just google the word "Koi".

 

If you get Japanese carp add "consort". Suffice to say few Thais have been showing the slightest interest in Thaivisa and the activities of foreigners in the last seven days.

 

An exception might have been the case of the building contractor and loan shark who waited outside a Khon Kaen resort for an Itailan who had been sharing his girlfriend and what looked like the Honda he had bought her. Mario Ferrari - whose surname attracted the local distaff interest - was shot several times in the back with a revolver. Life without parole or amnesty please.

 

How often do we see jealousy lead to jailhouse for Thais and foreigners alike?

 

Increasingly it appears that Thais are responsible for far better rants than foreigners. This fact was highlighted by the best social media recorded meltdowns of the week. The first featured a nasty brat dubbed the  "Million Baht Man in Glasses" who slagged off his compatriots and belittled them for being unable to afford a Honda Civic. This was even more absurd than Mini Cooper Nott a few years ago who made a motorcyclist "graap" (show obedience to) his feet.

 

The second became known as "Fatty Hot Head" after the rotund ranter started bashing and kicking a security vehicle at Suwannaphum airport. Daddy came to pick up the man-child and four charges followed - all because this spoilt and entitled idiot felt it beneath him to get a parking ticket.

 

Yes, temperatures and tempers were high - it was welcome news that the mercury started dropping and just 6 degrees C was recorded on Doi Inthanon, Thailand's highest peak.

 

The antics of "Dr Kamalor" reminded Rooster of one of the greatest UK sitcoms and one of its finest episodes. The Thai con man had racked up a 48,000 baht bill living it up at a Chiang Mai hotel on the never-never before disappearing into the northern smog. Who could ever forget John Cleese's memorable fawning to Lord Melbury and his predictable comeuppance after discovering bricks instead of valuables in the hotel safe!

 

Nothing will ever match Fawlty Towers in its depiction of the class system in Britain but also for its treatment of foreigners, especially Germans and Americans who were seen as far better than the nation's own inhabitants. 

 

Death and near death experiences made for some interesting column inches; and neither involved anything to do with the predictable carnage on the Thai roads. In Chonburi two people have died - well croaked - after drinking "Ya Dong" laced with extract of toad.

 

As unbelievable as this may be it paled into insignificance beside the story of 70 year old granny Phinit Sophajorn who apparently died in Isaan on Sunday. At the temple, her husband was the last in the queue to wash her face in a final ritual before her coffin was nailed down for cremation. Then he noticed that she was still breathing.

 

Phinit was taken home and the coffin was burned without her inside it, to assuage bad luck of course. Talk about leaving it to the last minute!

 

The story was finally put to bed, as it were, by a hospital director who said it was just a reflex reaction of cells that made her eyes open and gran had not been breathing and was dead all along. Spoilsport!

 

On Thursday, CP Group finally inked their deal with a Chinese Railway consortium for the much heralded high speed train from Bangkok to U-Tapao. the $7.4 billion plan will mean 45 minutes from Makkasan to Pattaya and jobs for every migrant builder in South East Asia. 

 

Many posters on Thaivisa are pooh-poohing the whole idea saying it will never be built and no one will use it.

 

Detractors said that about the BTS and MRT in Bangkok. Now you can't get a seat. 

 

Finally laughing at the antics of plod is virtually a national sport in Thailand whether you are Thai or foreign. But this week in Petchaboon they didn't mind the jibes when the annual Police Day races were shared on social media. Relay races of 4 x 100 meters duration featured regular and traffic officers in full uniform racing for the tape.

 

The Thai press said kindly that robbers wouldn't stand a chance with these rozzers. It wasn't reported if trophies or even envelopes were doled out. 

 

But for days I couldn't get the word "keystone" out of my head.

 

Rooster
 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2019-10-26

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

9 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Nothing will ever match Fawlty Towers in its depiction of the class system in Britain but also for its treatment of foreigners, especially Germans and Americans who were seen as far better than the nation's own inhabitants. 

You almost mentioned the war, but I think you got away with it ...

 

An excellent read as always...

 

13 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Obviously blaming foreigners for a nation's ills is a convenient way to find scapegoats to deflect from a country's deficiencies. For Big Oud it will help to justify his position. Rooster disagrees that there is a high level of xenophobia in Thailand, even that what there is has increased in recent years.

 

I have to disagree as a matter of emphasis on the issue of foreigners and scapegoats. Are Thais as xenophobic as they are sometimes/often portrayed on TVF? No, I don't believe so (no one is that bad! ????). That said, I have certainly noticed an increase in general negative feelings towards foreigners over the last five or so years. Hmm... What occurred five years or so ago?

 

Having a look at a society and focusing only on a key element or two to explain a change in that society is often foolish, but... er... Damn the Torpedoes!

 

Thailand, according to 2018 figures, has the highest income inequality in ASEAN and the fourth highest in the world, and the Thai people have noticed. Further, the decline of economic opportunities, free speech and general political rights in the Kingdom hasn't gone un-noticed and neither has the idea that those losses/declines are accelerating. These two factors (combined with many, many others) have forced the PTB to address this issue where they didn't need to in the pre-Internet/Facebook days, and frankly what has occurred in the Kingdom is beyond reasonable explanation.

 

So, blame the foreigners.

 

Sadly, this is a ploy that goes back centuries for the simple reason that it is effective; witness the rise of Trump, the far-right parties in Europe, the Rohingga (spelling) in Burma, etc; promoting a fear and/or resentment of 'others', especially those who are physically identifiable, is an effective tool for distracting a local population of their own disadvantages.

 

Is there evidence to support this? Pick up a Thai newspaper and/or view a Thai news show; is there anyone out there who can state that they have read Thai media for a week without seeing an article about immigration? A healthy society does not need to discuss immigration on a weekly basis, an unhealthy society looking for distractions and scapegoats does.

 

All that I can add is that I hope this phenomena is temporary; the greatest attraction for me to Thailand has been the Thai people; it would be a terrible loss if their minds were poisoned against visitors in the name of short-term political gain.

 

3 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

I have certainly noticed an increase in general negative feelings towards foreigners over the last five or so years.

I could not disagree more with your generalisation.  I think Rooster, as usual, has made some very valid points.

I believe that as my time in Thailand extends so does my knowledge and understanding of both Thailand and my Thai friends and acquaintances as does their understanding of me.

 

Edited October 27, 20196 yr by scottiejohn

most enjoyable read

 

Thai visa should review their policy of reporting foreign overstayers. This would not be news in any other country. I'm sure it does not strike fear into the hearts of those on overstay, and only makes for negative replies. Is it really news? 

 

Soo joy to read this. I loved it.

23 hours ago, scottiejohn said:

I could not disagree more with your generalisation.  I think Rooster, as usual, has made some very valid points.

I believe that as my time in Thailand extends so does my knowledge and understanding of both Thailand and my Thai friends and acquaintances as does their understanding of me.

 

I must disagree with you scottiejohn based on my personal experiences. I have a large group of wonderful Thai friends both men and women. Actually meeting my male friends through the women. Everyone that knows me has welcomed me into their homes on many occasions and shown me nothing but love and kindness. It's the people that don't know us who are at issue. When women stare at me I smile back at them and speaking in Thai say hello and ask how they are. They immediately smile with shy embarrassment and happily say hello. The Thai men on the other hand not so good. Many times when I am out walking they will make direct eye contact and cross into my path and deliberately run into me. Myself being of a rather large athletic and muscular build has yet to work in their favour. I have had Thai men on motorbikes riding on the footpath do the same thing only to end up with a broken mirror. Can you possibly explain this behaviour in Thai men?

50 minutes ago, BobinBKK said:

I must disagree with you scottiejohn based on my personal experiences. I have a large group of wonderful Thai friends both men and women. Actually meeting my male friends through the women. Everyone that knows me has welcomed me into their homes on many occasions and shown me nothing but love and kindness. It's the people that don't know us who are at issue. When women stare at me I smile back at them and speaking in Thai say hello and ask how they are. They immediately smile with shy embarrassment and happily say hello. The Thai men on the other hand not so good. Many times when I am out walking they will make direct eye contact and cross into my path and deliberately run into me. Myself being of a rather large athletic and muscular build has yet to work in their favour. I have had Thai men on motorbikes riding on the footpath do the same thing only to end up with a broken mirror. Can you possibly explain this behaviour in Thai men?

Jealousy is a curse.  I don't know you personally but your probably to dammed handsome and Thai men hate you for it! ????

As always, a great report on the state of the State! My wife refuses to discuss Thai news as she says it's too depressing and of course there was much to discuss this week!

Thank you to all the people with positive comments about this week's column. 

 

Your encouragement is greatly valued. 

 

Rooster