The wife is visiting family in a village in issan. Started a video call 7am this morning but could hardly hear her due to loud voice in the background. Is the TV on loud I asked? No, she replies with a giggle. It is the daily village message from the village boss who’s got a loudspeaker atop his roof. Today is about recycling she says. He’s about 500m away. That’s an effective way of getting your message across I suppose using sound equipment he probably got from an ACDC band garage sale early in the morning when everyone is at home sleeping or just woken up. Authoritarian system at work or just an innocent public service announcement? You be the judge!

Quite common.They are literally everywhere.

As said everywhere outside of cities (one reason to live in a city).  It is official policy/equipment and older than TV.  

Speakers less used in our area now, most communication is by line app, followed up by nearly as efficient word of mouth ????

Basically, it's their newspaper... Relaying news, happenings, needs for volunteering or jobs available within the village family, updates, meetings, funerals, water or road closures, weather, wat doings etc.....

It's their daily updates....But a PITA if close to a speaker....

"Something from an ACDC band" lol.

We have one two doors down, and the poo yay bahn (however it's spelt) allowed me to plug in a USB stick with some ACDC on it a few years back. Half the village was walking around with a grin thinking "bloody farang".

About the same time he challenged me to a game of lawn bowls and his son gave a running commentary over the PA. My wife came running down in a tissy "What you doing darling?" I said "I'm having a game" She replied "You're not supposed to win"

49 minutes ago, pgrahmm said:

Basically, it's their newspaper... Relaying news, happenings, needs for volunteering or jobs available within the village family, updates, meetings, funerals, water or road closures, weather, wat doings etc.....

It's their daily updates....But a PITA if close to a speaker....

That sums it up pretty well.

It has always seemed kind of creepy and "orwellian" to me, but hey, if the locals don't have a problem with it why should we?

Give a Thai a loudspeaker , a microphone or a whistle and they will get full use out of it . 

  When I see a Policeman furiously blowing his whistle and frantically waving the traffic to proceed , I always want to go and tell him that the cars would proceed anyway , without him blowing his whistle .

  Put your whistle down, stand back and watch the cars naturally drive by 

7 minutes ago, CMHomeboy78 said:

if the locals don't have a problem with it why should we?

Suspect it is more Thai politeness rather than not have a problem with it.

8 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

Suspect it is more Thai politeness rather than not have a problem with it.

I'm not sure about that - the sense and spirit of community in rural Thailand is very strong.

1 hour ago, AustinRacing said:

Today is about recycling she says. He’s about 500m away. That’s an effective way of getting your message across .

My local loudspeaker system used to have regular fund raising events , raising funds for numerous causes seemingly on a daily basis and they read out the names of the people who donated and how much money they gave , which could be viewed as publicly telling everyone who hasn't actually made a donation  or encouraging people to donate in order to get their name read out or encouraging people to donate so as to not get their name read out .

29 minutes ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

Give a Thai a loudspeaker , a microphone or a whistle and they will get full use out of it . 

Stickers. Don't forget stickers.

30 minutes ago, CMHomeboy78 said:

if the locals don't have a problem with it why should we?

The speakers are about 20 foot from the bedroom window and on the same level. The 7am messages aren't too bad but when he starts at 5.30am (not often admittedly) @#$%@#$%

35 minutes ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

Give a Thai a loudspeaker , a microphone or a whistle and they will get full use out of it . 

  When I see a Policeman furiously blowing his whistle and frantically waving the traffic to proceed , I always want to go and tell him that the cars would proceed anyway , without him blowing his whistle .

  Put your whistle down, stand back and watch the cars naturally drive by 

Funny you say that. It also applies to traffic controllers around work. Number of times they have waved me through with a whistle and furious hand gestures only to stop because the guys who were supposed to stop to let me through ignored him. 

“The village boss (headman)”…..are we in Monty Python Dark Ages here ? “‘Well I didn’t vote for him “…..” You don’t vote for a king (headman)”.

Irredeemably freakin ‘ Backward…….and all the farangs here just go along with it….of course they are never elected right ? 

In my area here on Pattaya's Darkside, there isn't a PA system but there are trucks driving around making public service announcements: water outages, electrical interruptions, etc.  They don't bother me as I don't know what they're saying unless the wife mentions it, so it just comes across as background noise.

Our house is probably a mile away from the loudspeaker and you can hear it clear as a bell.

 

God help anyone who lives next to it.

 

Then again go to a Thai wedding/funeral/monk initiation and prepare to suffer permanent hearing loss, since as the honored farang you will be seated right next to the giant loudspeakers cranked up for maximum distortion!

On 12/13/2021 at 8:29 AM, pgrahmm said:

Basically, it's their newspaper... Relaying news, happenings, needs for volunteering or jobs available within the village family, updates, meetings, funerals, water or road closures, weather, wat doings etc.....

It's their daily updates....But a PITA if close to a speaker....

Except that nobody listens to it.

Go ask a Thai what all the distorted waffle was about.

Most say "Dunno"

Every day life in the land of noise.

They just like the sound of their own voice.

8 hours ago, GinBoy2 said:

Our house is probably a mile away from the loudspeaker and you can hear it clear as a bell.

 

God help anyone who lives next to it.

 

Then again go to a Thai wedding/funeral/monk initiation and prepare to suffer permanent hearing loss, since as the honored farang you will be seated right next to the giant loudspeakers cranked up for maximum distortion!

I've never had a problem, none of this stuff is allowed in our gated community.

I can just about hear the speakers in the distance on a quiet morning.

It had a real use, before mobile phones and the internet.

Now days just one more unnecessary noise.

On 12/13/2021 at 9:22 AM, CMHomeboy78 said:

That sums it up pretty well.

It has always seemed kind of creepy and "orwellian" to me, but hey, if the locals don't have a problem with it why should we?

   Spot on.

   If Thais don't complain about some aggravating aspect of life here then neither should we.

Keeping our vocal criticisms within a circle of family and friends goes a long way towards promoting a peaceful life among people who don't always take kindly to criticism... especially from foreigners.

On 12/13/2021 at 8:06 AM, AustinRacing said:

That’s an effective way of getting your message across I suppose using sound equipment he probably got from an ACDC band garage sale early in the morning when everyone is at home sleeping or just woken up. 

Usually there are speakers installed along the roads, it doesn't come from one central speaker.

 

On 12/13/2021 at 8:14 AM, lopburi3 said:

As said everywhere outside of cities (one reason to live in a city).

In Chiang Mai city (amphoe meuang) they also have speakers, but I don't know if everywhere or only some places.

I live in Pattaya in one of the most quiet places I have lived in for years  even decades. I no longer use earplugs to sleep..Cities are often quieter than the country side

That's one of the boons of the pandemic. No more slow moving advertising trucks blaring out whatever they are selling. No more Muay Thai pick up trucks with loudspeakers and their ever repeating sales patter.

 

"Tonight tonight. Get the seat earlier!"

50 minutes ago, DeaconJohn said:

   Spot on.

   If Thais don't complain about some aggravating aspect of life here then neither should we.

Keeping our vocal criticisms within a circle of family and friends goes a long way towards promoting a peaceful life among people who don't always take kindly to criticism... especially from foreigners.

Good points about keeping schtum at certain times.

This loudspeaker issue is one of them.

It's often said that we are "guests" here and should act accordingly.

Hell, we don't even qualify as guests - I wasn't invited, were you?

We're more like party-crashers who have arrived too late and found "...a banquet hall deserted, whose lights are fled, whose garlands dead, and all but he departed."

Not in Thailand, but in Myanmar..

 

A few years ago while working in Mandalay, I got chatting to a young, western woman in the pizza restaurant.  She had come to Mandalay specifically to meet her Dutch boyfriend who was incarcerated in the local prison for the past 6 months, and was due to be released in the next few days.

 

His crime was unplugging the electrical cable to the very large sound system used to broadcast Buddhist chants early each morning to the neighbourhood.  Having just arrived from the Netherlands, and suffering from jetlag, this early morning alarm call infuriated him, and so he put a stop to it....

 

He was actually released from the prison and driven straight to the airport at an unannounced time, to ensure that there were no no angry scenes from the local Buddhists ????