Seen On A Baht Bus

[Jingthing]

So there was this incredibly drunken Slavic type gentleman on a crowded late night baht bus. Stacked next to him, a large bag filled with several bottles of cheap booze. He is babbling. He is talking to himself. He is a google of sheets to the wind.

So he stumbles off the baht bus at what may have been his stop, but who really knows. Without his bag of booze as he is too pissed to realize he has a bag of booze.

The crowd saved him to recover his bag of poison. Helpful or not?

Sometimes in Pattaya you see the living examples of what turns out to be a juicy item in the Pattaya press a few days later ... There but for the Grace of God go us, Merry Christmas!

[Basil B]

So there was this incredibly drunken Slavic type gentleman on a crowded late night baht bus. Stacked next to him, a large bag filled with several bottles of cheap booze. He is babbling. He is talking to himself. He is a google of sheets to the wind.

So he stumbles off the baht bus at what may have been his stop, but who really knows. Without his bag of booze as he is too pissed to realize he has a bag of booze.

The crowd saved him to recover his bag of poison. Helpful or not?

Sometimes in Pattaya you see the living examples of what turns out to be a juicy item in the Pattaya press a few days later ... There but for the Grace of God go us, Merry Christmas!

Please enlighten us, just what is the definition of a "google" as described above?

BB

[Jingthing]

Sorry, the word I meant to use was googol, not google:

A googol is the large number 10100, that is, the digit 1 followed by one hundred zeros (in decimal representation)

[britmaveric]

Well not your decision to make - he bought the booze, he needs to take it with him. What happens later, up to him!

[Jingthing]

Well not your decision to make - he bought the booze, he needs to take it with him. What happens later, up to him!

I agree. Its his "life". I just found it odd that people were so quick to help this sick man recover his poison. I am sure the intentions were good but if a crack addict left his bag of crack, would people have also been so "helpful"?

Edited December 24, 2008 by Jingthing

[BeauKarl]

Still better then leaving it for the driver to drink it, far worse things could happen then

[NanLaew]

Well not your decision to make - he bought the booze, he needs to take it with him. What happens later, up to him!

I agree. Its his "life". I just found it odd that people were so quick to help this sick man recover his poison. I am sure the intentions were good but if a crack addict left his bag of crack, would people have also been so "helpful"?

He wasn't sick though, just really, really drunk. The sickness comes the day after, late afternoon for me, commonly called a hangover I think.

It was alcohol in his bag, not poison, sorry.

Alcohol is socially acceptable in most places whereas crack is globally reviled. No comparison really.

[Jingthing]

Well not your decision to make - he bought the booze, he needs to take it with him. What happens later, up to him!

I agree. Its his "life". I just found it odd that people were so quick to help this sick man recover his poison. I am sure the intentions were good but if a crack addict left his bag of crack, would people have also been so "helpful"?

He wasn't sick though, just really, really drunk. The sickness comes the day after, late afternoon for me, commonly called a hangover I think.

It was alcohol in his bag, not poison, sorry.

Alcohol is socially acceptable in most places whereas crack is globally reviled. No comparison really.

I am sure alcohol kills many more people than crack. It is poison to someone clearly addicted like the bus passenger. I suppose you would have had to have seen this particular character to realize he was not so subtly killing himself and is indeed a very sick man (this was not a happy drunk). For me, it is a health drink as I have my therapeutic two drinks a night as a heart tonic. There is really no comparison though for the harm caused to societies, alcohol is much worse and that is verifiable. Not to mention all the innocent victims of drunk driving. How many crack driving fatalities do you hear about in comparison. Again. you are so right: NO COMPARISON. No, I am not suggesting alcohol be made illegal. I think all drugs should be legal. At least then states could control the purity and make high taxes on them to offset the social damages. OK, I do realize that is a radically libertarian minority viewpoint and will never happen. However, the ethical issue I was speculating about is, yes, so people are free to damage themselves, but should we HELP them damage themselves?

Edited December 25, 2008 by Jingthing

[NanLaew]

^ I get your point and agree there's a dilemma about the point where you would take action. In this case, making sure the drunk chap had his carry-out was polite and correct in my opinion, regardless of the harm he was doing to himself. Isn't it the case with joining the AA that the first step for the individual is admitting there's a problem? They are pretty long in denial up to that point and hiding this guys bag may only reinforce his denial when he realises his booze isn't there when he wants it.

Now, if this guy had then decided to walk out in front of traffic, then I would imagine most of us would physically intervene where his action would clearly cause himself and others immediate physical harm. However, stumbling up the soi to his abode is less immediately life-threatening so most of us I think would quickly look away from the train wreck in slow motion.

A sad state to be in for sure; I have at least 3 friends from years ago in Pattaya that fell deeply inside the bottle. Some accepted help, others threw it back in the faces of friends. Like yourself, I have my 'medicinal' imbibes when at home and seldom get tanked like I did 20 years ago. The recoveries are too long and painful these days!