Will You Help - Please!

[Peewee]

People (and especially farangs) who want to help out in Thailand’s Tsunami hit areas are a bit of an embarrassment to the officials who like to feel, and be seen, that they are coping very well on their own. Actually they are doing well considering the enormity of the problem, but the local people would say things are happening far too slowly.

The important point is that these ‘farang helpers’ are also an encouragement for the officials to keep on top of their own aid programmes and efforts, and so they should be encouraged to continue.

The outside help to the area over the first few weeks was very considerable, people arrived from all over the world. Things at this time were so serious that it didn’t matter to anyone where the help came from and Thais worked with farangs shoulder to shoulder without and sense of whose job this should be.

After 3 – 4 weeks the situation was becoming a little more sensitive, and perhaps political. Outside organisation s were told thank you but we are OK, we can manage. It’s right that people by that time were staring to be moved out of their tents and into temporary wooden and metal shacks, food was being provided and the camps sites were fairly clean and risk free of diseases.

Most of the displaced family’s had lost loved ones and so no circumstances would be happy ones for them, obviously. One of things I felt most at that time was that they needed hope and a reason to continue to strive for a future; for many, this was a real struggle. To see things around them getting better each day and that people really cared about their situation was incredibly important for them.

The situation during January was a bizarre one in so many ways. You could go into any shop or supermarket in Phuket and the shelves were full. 90 mins drive to the North and people (sometimes family’s of 4 – 6) were living in 3ft square tents with just their clothes and the meals which were being provided to them regularly each day.

Things are improving continually but I do hope that the Thai authorities will accept that farangs have a need as well as a duty to help out the Thai people that they have come to hold so dear to them.

I could not count the number of farang that have said or written about the incredible kindness and bravery that Thai people showed to them during the time of the waves. Many lives were saved due to Thai peoples feeling of responsibility to their ‘guests’ – no doubt about that at all.

It would be nice therefore to try and address the balance so that perhaps there could be as many tales of kindness and unselfishness of Farnag to Thais now that so much needs to be done to get back to some form of normality.

In the hope that it might create some inspiration and answer some questions I have prepared the following web site on Thailand’s Tsunami.

My Webpage

Respects to all, Peewee