Mind Your Own Business In Los

[Tod Daniels]

Foreigners getting involved with thai on thai altercations is another kettle of fish altogether from foreigners butting in on other foreigners.

Given the appalling lack of even basic thai language skills most foreigners have, coupled with the oxymoronic behavior of the indigenous natives pawned off as the ever mythical thing known as “thai culture”; foreigners can find themselves in way over their heads very quickly. Adding alcohol into the mix for either party (thai or foreigner) and things can go sideways very fast, often with dire consequences.

I routinely sit with 7 or 8 thai guys out in front of my apartment after they finish work and are waiting for the perpetual grid lock to ease enough so they can drive home. Now these are NOT typical dirt poor run of the mill thais, but well educated, middle class guys who work good jobs, have houses, wives, kids, cars etc. When I asked them if they saw an altercation between thais would they get involved, to a person they said emphatically; "no frickin' way".

When pressed, giving them the example of an unknown thai man slapping around an equally unknown thai woman, they said they might intercede but ONLY to tell them to take the fight off the street. They said under no circumstances would they do anything more than offer that as a suggestion. They wouldn't call the police and for the most part would just continue drinking, unless the altercation got so loud as to interrupt them. The phrase they used was "Not our affair", (or in thai: ไม่ใช่เรื่องของเรา). They did follow that up by stating depending on how well they knew the couple involved a person could become more or less involved, but with completely unknown people, they wouldn't even bat an eye no matter how much of a slug-fest it turned into.

I've personally witnessed a foreigner try to break up a very heated slap-fest between a drunken thai guy and his equally drunken thai g/f. BOTH of the thais immediately stopped fighting each other and together turned on the foreigner. Once the thai guy knocked the foreigner down to his knees, the woman beat him so hard with her high heel shoe I thought he was going to leave with it sticking out of his skull like an antler. I would say, as a rule don't get involved at all. If you do decide to "play the hero"; you better be able to speak/understand more than two-word-tourist-thai or be prepared for the worst case scenario.

I routinely ignore the myriad of thais and the foreigners here no matter what they are doing unless it impacts my life directly. It's worked for over 5 years, and neither the thais nor myself seem worse for the wear.

[tropo]

Foreigners getting involved with thai on thai altercations is another kettle of fish altogether from foreigners butting in on other foreigners.

Given the appalling lack of even basic thai language skills most foreigners have, coupled with the oxymoronic behavior of the indigenous natives pawned off as the ever mythical thing known as “thai culture”; foreigners can find themselves in way over their heads very quickly. Adding alcohol into the mix for either party (thai or foreigner) and things can go sideways very fast, often with dire consequences.

I routinely sit with 7 or 8 thai guys out in front of my apartment after they finish work and are waiting for the perpetual grid lock to ease enough so they can drive home. Now these are NOT typical dirt poor run of the mill thais, but well educated, middle class guys who work good jobs, have houses, wives, kids, cars etc. When I asked them if they saw an altercation between thais would they get involved, to a person they said emphatically; "no frickin' way".

When pressed, giving them the example of an unknown thai man slapping around an equally unknown thai woman, they said they might intercede but ONLY to tell them to take the fight off the street. They said under no circumstances would they do anything more than offer that as a suggestion. They wouldn't call the police and for the most part would just continue drinking, unless the altercation got so loud as to interrupt them. The phrase they used was "Not our affair", (or in thai: ไม่ใช่เรื่องของเรา). They did follow that up by stating depending on how well they knew the couple involved a person could become more or less involved, but with completely unknown people, they wouldn't even bat an eye no matter how much of a slug-fest it turned into.

I've personally witnessed a foreigner try to break up a very heated slap-fest between a drunken thai guy and his equally drunken thai g/f. BOTH of the thais immediately stopped fighting each other and together turned on the foreigner. Once the thai guy knocked the foreigner down to his knees, the woman beat him so hard with her high heel shoe I thought he was going to leave with it sticking out of his skull like an antler. I would say, as a rule don't get involved at all. If you do decide to "play the hero"; you better be able to speak/understand more than two-word-tourist-thai or be prepared for the worst case scenario.

I routinely ignore the myriad of thais and the foreigners here no matter what they are doing unless it impacts my life directly. It's worked for over 5 years, and neither the thais nor myself seem worse for the wear.

A lot of good advice here!

Edited December 4, 2009 by tropo

[cognos]

".. routinely ignore the myriad of thais and the foreigners here no matter what they are doing unless it impacts my life directly. It's worked for over 5 years, and neither the thais nor myself seem worse for the wear..."

.. "NO MATTER WHAT THEY ARE DOING.."???? ..with all due respect..sometimes something horrible can be happening right in front of one's eyes, like a woman being raped or murdered, for an extreme example..it may not impact you DIRECTLY, but it is still prudent to take affirmative action, even if it is NOT your wife or daughter..it IS someone else's daughter.. PLEASE, in general.. don't limit personal help to only those whom you have a direct relationship to, otherwise the world would go to hel_l in a hand basket.. signed: perplexed

[plaaduk]

.."It is an established fact that in this country if a farang stops at a roadside accident then he will be deemed responsible for causing it even if he were nowhere near at the time.."

I would hope thats not the case, but it may well be..I'm a special needs teacher in Vancouver, and have many students of " India origin" who go there during the school year..a few have reported seeing dying people on the street in the Punjab, and noone helps.."Why not.. I asked them?".. they always say what you said..the helper will be blamed... a sad situation that..

It's not only in the Punjab! I have worked in Washington D.C. before.I am Asian and I have been advised by other Asians that if I see someone falling on a frozen footwalk, I should not offer to help as I could be sued if anything goes wrong and I may be blamed under the circumstances!Such attitudes are not peculiar to any race! It is the risk of being misunderstood and being blamed for something which you had good intentions to help solve!