Just How Cheap Is A Thai Life?

[rockyysdt]

health and safety should be introduced via government and begins by setting fair compensation for loss of life and limb for workers.paid by the employer.the rest should follow. but as many people comment this is Thailand and you have to tackle the problems of corruption first.

This would force employers to do something.

Thai people are humans and should be treated as such.

Health and safety needn't be expensive, just common sense training in many cases.

Examples I saw were:

An electricital workman on a ladder set up over a road right at a blind bend.

All he had to do was place a sign further up the road warning oncoming traffic.

I shuddered as I watched him work.

Another workman was operating in a manhole on a roadway.

He sat there working on cabling with his head and chest sticking above the roadway.

This guy set up a little metal frame 25 centimetres from the edge of the manhole, without warning signs or any other barricades further up the road. I think he believed the flimsy metal frame was capable of stopping a motor vehicle from crushing him.

On another occasion I saw a rice farmer operating a rotary hoe bear footed.

There aren't many jobs out there which don't require feet should his be severed.

Also you only have to go to Beach & Second Rds to see all the crazy scooter taxi drivers dicing with traffic and hanging on car drivers blind spots. Someone should teach them about "odds".

Quite often it's just about education, a sore point in this part of the world.

Edited July 13, 2008 by rockyysdt

[0Mix1up]

whilst i agree there are scant little safety concerns and many thais loose their life for nothing

there is the opposite side, that life in thailand allows

it doesn't legislate to protect idiots like in the west

and that allows a certain freedom that many find refreshing.

i can't do many things here (australia) because someone with no sense will get hurt or hurt someone else!

[Heng]

Wasn't meant to be funny. They aren't being forced to do anything. It's the occupation that they choose.

I would imagine that if you're poor with no social security net to fall back on, your choices are somewhat limited. It's not as simple as picking and choosing at whim as you imply.

I didn't say it was at whim by any means. Who ever said life was fair or that people were born/created equal (except in the dreamworld of idealists)?

[egg6447]

heng you,ve worked overtime on every post of yours that ive read, to gain the yanky/thai hiso stand. superiority being your key. in this thread you,ve lost any and all respect that you may have gained. utterly disgusting attitude. sorry.

[Heng]

Nothing superior about it, Egg. Just a realistic view of life.

[thaihome]

Wonder how many people comparing current industrial safety in the west to Thailand worked in the construction industry in the west during the early and mid 20th century. As late as the middle ‘70’s I was doing similar things as shown in the photo of the guy working on the electrical wires. Was only by the mid ‘80’s that we even had to wear hard hats or steel toed shoes on all jobs.

Give them time, they are catching up, but it takes many years.

TH

[Alonso's Army]

If Thailand adopted a similar OH&S (Occupational Health & Safety) standard as in Oz, nothing will ever get done!