Sawang Boriboon

[jaywalker]

I keep reading in all the papers and hear it on TV........"Officers from Pattaya Police Station, together with Sawang Boriboon rescue workers" did this & that etc...

I lived in Pattaya 2001-2004 and never heard of Sawang Boriboon. What/who is it?

Obviously rescue workers, but why did I never hear of them before?

Just curious.

Thanks

[monty]

Sawang Boriboon is mainly a rescue organization based on volunteers.

Since Thailand does not have an organized ambulance service, all over the country this job gets done by volunteer organizations such as Sawang Boriboon.

I assume they originate from the Chinese Thai population, since they are heavily into the Chinese style events, such as the exhumation ceremonies on the Chinese cemeteries.

Actually if you live here, read newspapers and/or watch TV it's kind of hard to miss them! They have their main office in Naklua.

In Bangkok these organizations are often heavily criticized for fighting over their grounds like tribal groups, mainly because supposedly they get kickbacks from the hospitals they deliver the injured to. It's not that unusual having fist fights and even gunfights between them if an accident happens on the border between two such areas and they start arguing which of the groups are allowed to take the accident victims!

Luckily here in Pattaya we do not have that problem, seemingly the different rescue groups live quite peacefully next to each other.

Sawang Boriboon is the biggest group, there are some others, one of which I do not know the name of but they have a blue hand on the side of their cars...