Reality Check

[Jingthing]

There is no obligation to be fair to foreigners.

Words to live by, words to accept.

Time Magazine commentary on legal AND illegal immigration to America

There is no obligation to be fair to foreigners.

[JetsetBkk]

Words to live by, words to accept.

But... but... if you did, we wouldn't get any more of your wonderful threads.

[Jingthing]

Words to live by, words to accept.

But... but... if you did, we wouldn't get any more of your wonderful threads.

OK, don't hold me to this one. Pattaya wasn't built in a day.

[JetsetBkk]

Words to live by, words to accept.

But... but... if you did, we wouldn't get any more of your wonderful threads.

OK, don't hold me to this one. Pattaya wasn't built in a day.

So does this mean that one day you will relax and accept that you are a second class citizen, sneered at as a "farang" behind your back by the locals, charged at least double the Thai price for everything, can be kicked out at the whim of a fed-up immigration officer, and regularly scammed by the BiB?

Well done! Welcome to Thailand!

[cclub75]

There is no obligation to be fair to foreigners.

Words to live by, words to accept.

Time Magazine commentary on legal AND illegal immigration to America

There is no obligation to be fair to foreigners.

.... and your point is ?

And do you have a link to the Time Magazine quote ?

[Jingthing]

Sure, my point is only to consider the universal truth of the quote. I know the article is about immigration to the US, but it makes a point about immigration anywhere really.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...1692059,00.html

[farang prince]

This is a bullshit thread. You take an opinion piece written by Michael Kinsley in Time Magazine, use one quote from his opinion piece, and try to make it a universal truth. You have sunk to an alltime low Jingthing.

[chownah]

Sure, my point is only to consider the universal truth of the quote.

If you want "universal truth" try on, "No one has any obligations at all." Obligations are just restrictions put on us by others that we internalise and accept in a sort of deluded way. In reality feelings of obligation are mental avoidance spurred on by guilt.

[kmart]

There is no obligation to be fair to foreigners.

Words to live by, words to accept.

Probably best to accept maybe its your station in life, and drink the Kool Aid.

[mellow1]

" There is no obligation to be fair to foreigners " this sentence is used in reference to determining who is allowed to immigrate to the US. It is not about how people are treated when legally in the country. You can only dream about the equal rights, which you would have in the US, as compared to Thailand.

This is not even Thai related, it seems to be another thread created to bash the US, to attempt to find something wrong, which can be found to a MUCH greater here in the LOS.

[PeaceBlondie]

Regardless of what Michael Kingsley might have said in passing in an opinion piece in - gasp! - Time magazine (which Thais seldom read), a basic premise of Judeo-Christian culture for thousands of years has been this commandment from Exodus: "Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Exodus 22:20-22." Along with the Golden Rule, another pillar of western civilization, that means that we farang are supposed to not oppress the immigrants in our country.

Heck, I'm not oppressed, I'm not vexed in Thailand.

Did you read all of Kingsley's article? He (a political liberal favoring illegal immigrants) makes many good points, and is surely not against immigration to the USA. One point he concedes is that a country (including Thailand, by extension) could increase its legal immigration quota, but not indefinitely. As a liberal, Kingsley is value-oriented, and that throwaway line at the end of one paragraph is not a topic sentence (but you've quoted it as if it was the theme of the article).

Kingsley writes about legal and illegal immigration. Farang in Thailand are almost entirely, by definition, non immigrants. That's what most of our passport stamps say.

But thanks for the morning wake up call, Jingthing. Always nice to read a liberal political view by Kingsley.

[chanchao]

This is a bullshit thread. You take an opinion piece written by Michael Kinsley in Time Magazine, use one quote from his opinion piece, and try to make it a universal truth. You have sunk to an alltime low Jingthing.

I disagree.

I think the spoon thing ranks lower.

[lazeeboy]

This is a bullshit thread. You take an opinion piece written by Michael Kinsley in Time Magazine, use one quote from his opinion piece, and try to make it a universal truth. You have sunk to an alltime low Jingthing.

I disagree.

I think the spoon thing ranks lower.

i think we are all aware what most thai's think of us .

[Jingthing]

Its meant to provoke some thought and discussion, nothing more, nothing less.

And yes the quote is about real immigration rather than the non-immigrant status most of us have to settle for here, we still live here, and we are still allowed to live here or not allowed to live here at the pleasure of the Thai government. I think this totally applies to our situation: they have no obligation to be fair to us, at all.

[cooL_guY_corY]

why would anyone pay for double priced food ?

[Jingthing]

This is not even Thai related

Wrong! It totally is a Thai related thread. Because I meant people to consider that quote as it applies to our situation as foreigners living in Thailand.

I didn't even think the context of the original quote was important. It still stands alone and does accurately describe our experience here.

Edited December 9, 2007 by Jingthing

[Dr. Burrito]

I read the article and I can see the connections that apply. It's certainly less of a b.s. thread than the other claptrap I have read on here today. Great topics started the last few days involved such weighty issues as ladyboy attacks, Russian attacks, getting robbed at beer bars by slight of hand, beggars at Christmas and more. Let's face it, how we live here as foreigners under sovereign laws and centuries old customs is hardly worthy by comparison as it relates to other countries policies.

*NOTE: I am not attacking the other threads started, just comparing relevance to said thread and its inherent value if explored under context. No offense intended.

As to our rights here, I continue to find we have all the rights we assert and get none that we don't. Weighty issues such as paying double at a national park the one or two times a year I go there are hardly worth my time. But you say, 'It's the principal, Burrito, the principal.' I can hardly find anything of merit in arguing more than a minute over such minutia.

I don't like someone taking a p!ss anymore than the next person, but I still find Thais by and large get the brunt of the system here more than I do. The little stuff; crooked taxi drivers, tuk-tuk drivers, gem dealers, Ad nauseam, yeah, a pain, but hardly threatening my existence here.

The government, more times than not, I have found to be completely helpful if showed up with my t's crossed and i's dotted, pretty much the same as the U.S., perhaps more so at times. So despite them having absolutely no obligations to me, they seem to have done okay.

I will say this for this thread though, it also allowed me to get a laugh out of Peace Blondie's assertion that being liberal makes you value oriented. I guess that leaves all us conservatives as blood sucking demons waiting with whip and chain in hand at the border to strap the ones that get under the fence to the first plowshare we can attach them too.

Would that same analogy apply to foreigners working here on local hire as well?

Dr. B

Edited December 9, 2007 by Dr. Burrito

[Naam]

Words to live by, words to accept.

But... but... if you did, we wouldn't get any more of your wonderful threads.

SHOCKS! no more threads from Jingthing? don't scare me!

[PeaceBlondie]

Doctor of Burritos, no problemo. We liberals always had values. Then the conservatives stole our values!

Indeed, as you so eloquently phrased it, "I guess that leaves all us conservatives as blood sucking demons waiting with whip and chain in hand at the border to strap the ones that get under the fence to the first plowshare we can attach them too." Please don't be so harsh on yourself, Doctor! By the way, I agree with your entire post. We have it good here, compared to the hard working Thais.

[Jingthing]

The government, more times than not, I have found to be completely helpful if showed up with my t's crossed and i's dotted, pretty much the same as the U.S., perhaps more so at times. So despite them having absolutely no obligations to me, they seem to have done okay.

Well, of course, I am also a liberal in the US context, which doesn't translate so well anywhere else.

I would agree the Thai government doesn't treat us farangs so badly in the majority of cases, and for that we should indeed be grateful, if you subscribe to my premise here, which I do, that they are under no OBLIGATION to do so.