On the other hand: People don't care too much. Once before an operation (broken leg) the 40 something doctor said to me, that I was the first patient who wanted to know, what will be done and why...

Education is a big problem. I teach at a semi-international school so we have 20+ nationalities. The Thai students who've been with us for a while are quite aware of the wider world. The ones coming from other schools arrive without a clue.

The Thai curriculum is pretty a pretty horrendous document. The Social Studies section in particular is an embarassment, with the rest of the world tacked on as an afterthought. For instance, Religion, Morality and Ethics mostly covers Buddhism, with little regard for other options. History mostly revolves around the local area etc.

I've had to subvert the curriculum through creative interpretation somewhat to allow myself to teach the kids what they actually need to learn, so things like the Holocaust, Russian Revolution, North Korea, Middle-East conflict, etc. All these things equip the kids to better understand what might happen in Thailand, and things like holding mock elections (actually did 2, one fair election and one blatantly unfair election before debating the differences between them) help kids to understand the problems with vote-buying etc. My class is mostly Thai so that's hopefully helping a future generation of leaders? I don't know, but if I can help one kid get ideas that are better than the ones found locally then I've succeeded. Education is the key to getting Thailand out of this mess.