Where Is Our Uniquely Caring Thai Society?

[wintermute]

Another of these articles by guys, who are living a dream that has long, long gone. Reminds me of 3 girls on Songkhran, harming the picture of Thailand in the world. Wake up and then grow up, please!

I remember when that news first broke I was wondering what the fuss was about because you see multitudes of young Thai girls doing the same thing at various "establishments" in the evening as well as more discretely in places like Khao San.

[wintermute]

Thais haven't been what K'Pravit describes for at least 20 or 30 years. I only go back that far because that's as far back as I know people who can give first-hand accounts. But based on the fact that there have been 18 coups since 1932 it doesn't seem that the Thai people have been especially united.

Thais were never like what he imagined especially 30 years ago when there were various massacres and purges going on in Thai society. Thai society then was probably more divided in the 70's than it is now. It's not something Thai history books will talk about in detail or they make up facts about that period but you can read up about it if you do a little research from western sources.

This Thai unity has always been fictitious. It's always been the elite class pulling strings in Bangkok to the detriment of mostly the rural people. There's a good reason why nationalism and xenophobia is so dogmatic here. They need to keep the poor and ignorant believing the myth so they don't take a long hard look at who is really screwing them inside the country. It's as basic and simple as that.

[eastlight]

If people want to cling to the image of Thailand as a uniquely caring and united society, that's fine - but they must make it a reality through their actions. If you have already abandoned that image, or never subscribed to it in the first place, that's also fine

I'm of the latter, thanks. Deep down, it's generally been dog-eat-dog for as long as I've lived here from top to bottom.

And this notion that inner Bangkok is populated by the rich only is getting old.

I've always thought that Thailand which claims to be a Buddhist country is the most dog-eat-dog, self centred, selfish, I'm alright Jack country in the world.

[Nomadg1]

This is my first and last post.

Please understand that Bangkok is not Thailand.

I live in Rangsit, and although the lower part of my House (rented)

is knee deep in sewage I could not wish for better people around me than my Thai neighbors.

My phone and email has been very busy; due to concerned friends (mostly Thais) asking if they

can help me in any way even-though many of their houses are under two meters of water.

I have lived in Thailand for seven years, and yes I have been scammed and taken on a few occasions

and am often frustrated by Thai culture. I am married to a Thai (lady) and happy to be so; no we are not rich.

To cut this short. Please remember that this world is populated by humans.

The Thais are no different to any other race, and posses all our human failings.

As Dave Allen used to say. "Goodbye, good-luck, and may your Gods go with you.

[noitom]

As Digibum comments with perceptive insight, this "uniquely caring Thai society" is delusional. The number of foreigners who "love" Thai food, "rave" about Thai women, and are in "awe" about Thai culture, always seem so insincere and pretentious. Having asked back a number of them in many years what Thai food do you love? The answers range anywhere from street fish balls to pad Thai and when further questioned as to what they loved about it, you can start to immediately feel the insincerity and patronizing kind of attitude. You have to hand it to the Thais though. Somehow at least since the 50s and 60s, once they were through that alignment with Japan in WWII as an option to occupation, they've been able to perpetuate this myth that seems to captivate the majority of foreign visitors. It is quite amazing how a delusional view can be so pervasive among foreign visitors.

In my view, Thais lack any element of "charity" as we know it in the West. They often seem to revel in displaying an "arrogant" attitude and a resistance to help or communicate. Many may say foreigners fail to attempt to understand Thais and Thai culture. Thai culture is exclusive and it's not designed or encouraged for us to understand. They are Thai, we are not, it is "Thainess" as to why they do what they do. It's as if we don't exist and they don't see us or they look right past as we don't exist. They have no face to gain by accommodating us, and they are Thai. It's not for them to fit in. It's for us to accept their Thainess, another delusional concept that is difficult to get any consistent definition among even Thais.

Their reactions and behavior during these devastating floods is typical, in my view. Very self absorbed, self indulgent, every man for himself. There are exceptions as another member noted, when there is promotional value and face points to be gained or saved by helping out. The parking on the expressways weeks ago, typifies the attitude, and also points out the corrupted indulgent favoritism of crony government which condones it by excusing it. To my knowledge, the "business" in Bangkok was a by product of the rice, rubber , and fruit farms, and traders exporting plundered natural resources like Teak wood. The big "business" taking place in Bangkok was weekly breakfast meetings of the rice cartel to set prices. The other "business" that developed in the 60s was the "entertainment" business that resulted largely from the US troop R & R, which in turn accelerated the illicit drug trade. Bangkok was always a hub for narcotics traffic through to Marseilles well before the war in Vietnam. The Bangkok Thais know how to run "entertainment" businesses because they've been doing it in their own culture long before any foreigners represented a potential market. So later in the 70s as US military investment in Southeast Asia "paid off" for the Thai military and the elite business class, the Japanese and other foreign investors felt that Thailand was secure enough because it had a substantial military presence and backing from the US. So here come the Japanese again, and the Thai business class currying favor with yen investors. Small local Thai toaster and iron makers on the outskirts of "inner" sanctified Bangkok became the 51% partners of the invested Japanese, their global brands, and other nations. But this Thai economy that we now know is largely driven by farming, fishing, manufacturing, and logistics, most of which all happens outside Bangkok. Bangkok itself is merely a reflection of investment in Thailand's outlying provinces and districts for these basic economic drivers resulting in banking, bigger "entertainment," other tourism, more drug trade, and money flowing in to Bangkok and changing hands, along with arrogant, self serving, material attitudes that definitely are not a "uniquely caring Thai society."

So this all brings us to the question of why the polluted attitude of decades sponsored by poor, inept, corrupted Thai governments and why would the government of today abandon its core strength in the provinces? I suppose it boils down to following the money and power. Bangkok ended up being the center of elite power, rank, and control of money. So let's guard the money. It's easy to speculate that massive flooding in Bangkok would quickly give rise to looting, chaos, and crime. It's a natural progression in a highly class based society with privileged and underclass duking it out in the canals.

[digibum]

But in Thailand, the other thing you're expected to lie about is your love of Thailand, Thai culture, Thai food, and anything else Thai.

Let me just go slightly off topic and say that I find most Thai food sickeningly sweet these days. Thais don't seem to mind spooning heapfuls of sugar on an already sweet dish of pad thai. I just find it disgusting and order now 'mai sai naamtaan' (without sugar).

And you're right, it seems mandatory for everyone to love Thailand. In the LOS love and respect aren't earned, they're enforced.

A friend of mine summed it up pretty well:

Thailand is like Facebook. There's only an option to "Like" it.

Or another one:

You learn to deal with Thailand a lot easier if you just wake up to the fact that there's no such thing as a customer satisfaction survey

:-)

[wintermute]

So this all brings us to the question of why the polluted attitude of decades sponsored by poor, inept, corrupted Thai governments and why would the government of today abandon its core strength in the provinces? I suppose it boils down to following the money and power. Bangkok ended up being the center of elite power, rank, and control of money. So let's guard the money. It's easy to speculate that massive flooding in Bangkok would quickly give rise to looting, chaos, and crime. It's a natural progression in a highly class based society with privileged and underclass duking it out in the canals.

Finally someone who gets it. Great post noitom and consistent with real Thai history. For someone who wants to know more about the drug trade in Thailand, who allowed it inside Thailand, and what it was being used for.. google: CIA, air america, KMT, and golden triangle.

[notime]

Every country has a concoction of believes and myths that their citizens take for the truth about their "unique" national identity. In France it it "equality and fraternity", in Australia "fair go for all and Aussie mate hood", in Germany "superior race and German hard work", in USA "best country in the world and individual freedom", in China, Korea, Japan, Russia, Israel and many others "we are special and smarter than everybody else". So, "uniquely caring Thai society" is part of same-same bullshit. All nationalism/chauvinism is bad fiction as it fuels intolerance and hate of others.

[digibum]

a uniquely caring Thai society....very funny ..nobody gives a dam_n here about anybody else unless it's family or friends.

Any disaster here is mostly seen as an opportunity to make a profit by those in the position to exploit the situation.

Where are all the super-rich Thais donating I wonder ??? - Oh yes - they are making money by supplying the relieve goods bought for cash donated by the average Somchai.

and regarding the flooding - Whats new?

I read a book called "Profit and Loss" published in the 1970's about a Hamburg,Germany based tropical wood trader in the 60's - apart from the "influential" people and corruption involved in the destruction of the Thai forests it deals with the yearly flooding of Bangkok during the rainy season and how the influential and rich made sure certain areas of Bangkok never flooded because the water was diverted into areas away from the "important, rich and influential" people.

This was in the 1960's - 50+ years have passed and nothing has changed!

I agree for the most part. Where I disagree is that I have found the rural villager truely care for their neighbhors and work together to help one another. Having been married to my wife for many years now, I have learned quite a bit about village life. One reason is that for years and years they have lived together and do not move much. Also most in a village are related to one another. In Chiangmai not many Thais give a dam_n about each other. I've seen garbage tossed over on someone's property when no one is looking. I've seen blue refuge trucks back up on public property or personal property and unload their shit from the truck, all along looking to see who is coming along that might see them.

City Thais are very different from the hard working farmers and village people. The city people are far more interested in earning money and buying material things using the poor Thais to do the dirty work. Not much has changed in my opinion, but can only go back to the 70's. I'm sure many will come out with long winded contradictions, but who really cares. Everyone is entitled to express their thoughts without ridicule.

I agree and disagree. Yes, out in the villages and even in Bangkok in smaller communities you see a lot of working together and looking out for each other but I think a lot of it has to do with getting caught and losing face. You can't throw your trash in your neighbor's yard in the village because you're the only one who lives near enough to be the litterer.

[DocN]

Another of these articles by guys, who are living a dream that has long, long gone. Reminds me of 3 girls on Songkhran, harming the picture of Thailand in the world. Wake up and then grow up, please!

I remember when that news first broke I was wondering what the fuss was about because you see multitudes of young Thai girls doing the same thing at various "establishments" in the evening as well as more discretely in places like Khao San.

...and just think of what happens aprox. 500 meters from where they took their shirts off...and what happens there ANY GIVEN DAY of the week!

[hanuman2543]

Thais haven't been what K'Pravit describes for at least 20 or 30 years. I only go back that far because that's as far back as I know people who can give first-hand accounts. But based on the fact that there have been 18 coups since 1932 it doesn't seem that the Thai people have been especially united.

Thais were never like what he imagined especially 30 years ago when there were various massacres and purges going on in Thai society. Thai society then was probably more divided in the 70's than it is now. It's not something Thai history books will talk about in detail or they make up facts about that period but you can read up about it if you do a little research from western sources.

This Thai unity has always been fictitious. It's always been the elite class pulling strings in Bangkok to the detriment of mostly the rural people. There's a good reason why nationalism and xenophobia is so dogmatic here. They need to keep the poor and ignorant believing the myth so they don't take a long hard look at who is really screwing them inside the country. It's as basic and simple as that.

Hitting the nail on the head. Couldn't agree more. It is a fairytale often told by the rich and powerful for their own benefit.

[digibum]

There's no such thing as Red Cross in Asia or 'Medicines Sans Frontier' or 'Greenpeace' or Oxfam stemming from Thailand or Asia. Indeed, I'll challenge anyone to name one such do-good organization which originates in Asia without farang backing.

Greenpeace should not be in this list. Greenpeace is a self-righteous organisation purely in existence for the benefit of their own egos, full of people with "father issues". It does little of any benefit apart from distort the truth. They are totally numerically illiterate. The true aim of Greenpeace is to "make them wrong", not to help society. They will attack ANY progress and defend any nonsensical alternative no matter how absurd or impractical. Whist they sometimes get it right (out of pure statistical chance), they cloud the vast majority of issues with absurd negativity with little or no basis - the truth behind it being they just want to make "someone" wrong even when there is no basis for it. Nuclear power is a classic example - the best & cleanest power we have, but given bad press by these a**holes.

Another one who should please put the crackpipe down. Greenpeace has been (if nothing else) helped to create awareness for many things, concerning the environment. Their actions may be populistic, but that's exactly what you need in a world of media-overkill, if you want to get attention.

And now, go and get a shark-fin - soup!

Actually, the founder of Greenpeace left the organization and wants nothing to do with it. In fact, he is fighting against it because he feels they have totally gotten off course. That whole incident when they poured blood on the Japanese negotiators set back curbing whaling by at least a decade. They are attention whores who know that throwing blood on someone will bring in millions in donations. The fact that it sets back the cause is of no concern because the leadership is like a big corporation in the way it thinks. They think about donations and headlines. Saving the planet is just the dressing that gets the money coming in the door.

Same thing with Mother's Against Drunk Driving (MADD). The original founder of that organization quit as well. She had to quit when the group changed their goals from reducing traffic fatalities to prohibitionist aims. It has been proven in many studies that lowering the BAC level past a certain point when setting legal limits does nothing to lower accident rates. The hard core drinkers will still get behind the wheel. What it does do is result in people who have had a couple of drinks with dinner and of relatively low risk on the road being charged with drink driving because they blew a .081. The original founder wanted no part of that and so they forced her out.

[digibum]

a uniquely caring Thai society....very funny ..nobody gives a dam_n here about anybody else unless it's family or friends.

Any disaster here is mostly seen as an opportunity to make a profit by those in the position to exploit the situation.

Where are all the super-rich Thais donating I wonder ??? - Oh yes - they are making money by supplying the relieve goods bought for cash donated by the average Somchai.

and regarding the flooding - Whats new?

I read a book called "Profit and Loss" published in the 1970's about a Hamburg,Germany based tropical wood trader in the 60's - apart from the "influential" people and corruption involved in the destruction of the Thai forests it deals with the yearly flooding of Bangkok during the rainy season and how the influential and rich made sure certain areas of Bangkok never flooded because the water was diverted into areas away from the "important, rich and influential" people.

This was in the 1960's - 50+ years have passed and nothing has changed!

I agree for the most part. Where I disagree is that I have found the rural villager truely care for their neighbhors and work together to help one another. Having been married to my wife for many years now, I have learned quite a bit about village life. One reason is that for years and years they have lived together and do not move much. Also most in a village are related to one another. In Chiangmai not many Thais give a dam_n about each other. I've seen garbage tossed over on someone's property when no one is looking. I've seen blue refuge trucks back up on public property or personal property and unload their shit from the truck, all along looking to see who is coming along that might see them.

City Thais are very different from the hard working farmers and village people. The city people are far more interested in earning money and buying material things using the poor Thais to do the dirty work. Not much has changed in my opinion, but can only go back to the 70's. I'm sure many will come out with long winded contradictions, but who really cares. Everyone is entitled to express their thoughts without ridicule.

I have never seen "truly caring" here in the big cities or rural Thailand on any large scale. Thailand, in contrast to say, Japan, is a "me, me, me" society. We are seeing that now with the hoarding of food and water. I feel like we are glimpsing the future.

Thailand is a place of extreme contrasts in this sense. Just look at the Thai media. Every television show is either a drama which features everybody f'ing over everybody else or a feel good program with comedy aimed at people with a 3rd grade intellect or pandas (aren't they sooooooo cute?).

[CrustyJuggler66]

a uniquely caring Thai society....very funny ..nobody gives a dam_n here about anybody else unless it's family or friends.

I think anyone who has been here for a little while has a story regarding what families are capable of doing to each other so i think you can also scrub that one from your list.

[ScouseTommy]

A lot of the post made complete sense...... and then - <br style="color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 252); ">

"In reality, rich folk can avoid the floods by taking refuge at posh beach resorts that charge Bt10,000 per night, which is more than a month's wage for most factory workers, some of whom have already lost their jobs to the floods. Others can fly abroad to escape the reality at home."

Yes your right the rich folk can. But what about the rest of us?? What about the people living on the streets. The people in shacks along the main railway lines. What about the poor Thai people living in BKK. If this is yet another Farang thing..... then what about me, i am not even close to rich, I cannot fly home and i certainly cant afford to get out of BKK and pay (even cheap) hotel rates for the duration of flooding, on top of rent and bills e.t.c. Stop making idiotic statements, use a little bit of forethought and common sense!! The people of BKK are NOT more important than anywhere else. But flooding us just so we can have a taste of the pain and heartache is cutting off your nose to spite your face!

[hanuman1]

"People have been selfishly hoarding masses of bottled drinking water and food, while cars are double- or even triple-parked on elevated roads with no regard to how it's affecting traffic. Then there is the constant bickering between the ruling Pheu Thai Party and opposition Democrats as both sides try to make the most out of this disaster, not to mention those who are so busy watching this political soap opera that they have no time to help. Adding to the spectacle are the movie stars and television hosts who see the floods as a chance to promote themselves."fairytale

Was it ever different? The only thing Thai people are interested in is themselves, themselves and themselves. If you do not walk around blind here you can see it every day everywhere in this country. The united, unique and caring society is a fairytale. Screw everybody for your own benefit, that is the motto of the vast majority here.

My view on Thai people is that they are greedy and selfish, well that is to say it is a generalised opinion and probably does not apply to everyone.

I was married to a Thai woman who had some academic achievements. I married her, not because she was the best ;looking woman in the bunch, but because she appeared to be intelligent and 'sorted'. It turned out that she was a liar and thief and a very clever manipulator. While with me she was seeing a boyfriend elsewhere and using my money to buy him gifts, such as a watch and an i-phone. She was always on about the dishonesty of bar girls and Esarn girls, but in fact she was worse than them. Addicted to shopping she swamped herself with brand names and ended up with so many clothes it was obscene. At the end she left me because she "wanted to be independent". But this was part of a manipulative lie. Pretending to want me to be her best friend and someone I could always rely on, she coaxed some cash out of me. Got as much as she thought she could get and then turned against me overnight in an attempt to extract a few more million. Yes, Wachiraporn is typical of the lying cheating and manipulative Thai person. They all pretend to be good buddhists sticking to the precepts ..... but hey! Look at the whisky they drink, the greed, the selfishness, the lies and the theft as well as the cheating on their wives and husbands. So come to Chiang Mai and see this ex wife of mine. Absolutely diabolical and unbelievable. The caring society? Yeah well........

Still, at least you came out of it without being weighed down by bitterness or resentment...

[bigbamboo]

How is Thailand a uniquely caring society? It is no better and no worse than most.

[Squigy]

How is Thailand a uniquely caring society? It is no better and no worse than most.

IMO Thailand is far from a "caring society". It is far worse due to their two faceness of all members of the Thai community. Caring about other members of the family is limited even in a village environment here is Issan where I find myself. To be frankly honest if I died today or in the future, this village would not care one iota.

They have "milked me" from day one and since I would be dead and gone they would just go get another falang and milk them.

Buddha has a lot to do with things in Thailand.

Cheers

B

[DocN]

There's no such thing as Red Cross in Asia or 'Medicines Sans Frontier' or 'Greenpeace' or Oxfam stemming from Thailand or Asia. Indeed, I'll challenge anyone to name one such do-good organization which originates in Asia without farang backing.

Greenpeace should not be in this list. Greenpeace is a self-righteous organisation purely in existence for the benefit of their own egos, full of people with "father issues". It does little of any benefit apart from distort the truth. They are totally numerically illiterate. The true aim of Greenpeace is to "make them wrong", not to help society. They will attack ANY progress and defend any nonsensical alternative no matter how absurd or impractical. Whist they sometimes get it right (out of pure statistical chance), they cloud the vast majority of issues with absurd negativity with little or no basis - the truth behind it being they just want to make "someone" wrong even when there is no basis for it. Nuclear power is a classic example - the best & cleanest power we have, but given bad press by these a**holes.

Another one who should please put the crackpipe down. Greenpeace has been (if nothing else) helped to create awareness for many things, concerning the environment. Their actions may be populistic, but that's exactly what you need in a world of media-overkill, if you want to get attention.

And now, go and get a shark-fin - soup!

Actually, the founder of Greenpeace left the organization and wants nothing to do with it. In fact, he is fighting against it because he feels they have totally gotten off course. That whole incident when they poured blood on the Japanese negotiators set back curbing whaling by at least a decade. They are attention whores who know that throwing blood on someone will bring in millions in donations. The fact that it sets back the cause is of no concern because the leadership is like a big corporation in the way it thinks. They think about donations and headlines. Saving the planet is just the dressing that gets the money coming in the door.

Same thing with Mother's Against Drunk Driving (MADD). The original founder of that organization quit as well. She had to quit when the group changed their goals from reducing traffic fatalities to prohibitionist aims. It has been proven in many studies that lowering the BAC level past a certain point when setting legal limits does nothing to lower accident rates. The hard core drinkers will still get behind the wheel. What it does do is result in people who have had a couple of drinks with dinner and of relatively low risk on the road being charged with drink driving because they blew a .081. The original founder wanted no part of that and so they forced her out.

Attention whore is the exact same thing, people say about Michael Moore.

Perhaps they are, but by getting this kind of attention, they get attention for the "cause"- and that is essential.

Except for that I didn't need to eat shark fins, I never got, what was wrong with it, UNTIL I saw a report on how cruel this is.

Maybe they are more in love with themselves than anything else, but if a few more person"s attention is drawn to the subject and these people think about it and do something...Greenpeace can get all the attention they want.

Different story with PETA, who permanently go over any target!

[Gweiloman]

How is Thailand a uniquely caring society? It is no better and no worse than most.

IMO Thailand is far from a "caring society". It is far worse due to their two faceness of all members of the Thai community. Caring about other members of the family is limited even in a village environment here is Issan where I find myself. To be frankly honest if I died today or in the future, this village would not care one iota.

They have "milked me" from day one and since I would be dead and gone they would just go get another falang and milk them.

Buddha has a lot to do with things in Thailand.

Cheers

B

I find very often in life, that we are treated the way we treat others.

Also in many western societies, the more well off partner tends to be "milked", not just by partners, family or friends but also by the Government.

[KKvampire]

Every country has a concoction of believes and myths that their citizens take for the truth about their "unique" national identity. In France it it "equality and fraternity", in Australia "fair go for all and Aussie mate hood", in Germany "superior race and German hard work", in USA "best country in the world and individual freedom", in China, Korea, Japan, Russia, Israel and many others "we are special and smarter than everybody else". So, "uniquely caring Thai society" is part of same-same bullshit. All nationalism/chauvinism is bad fiction as it fuels intolerance and hate of others.

Exactly, which North American country is it that the current leader always say is the"greatest country in the world" at regular intervals.

[YellowFeverCAD]

Many Thais r not truly nice people anymore and u can all argue the fact but after nearly 20 yrs here they have changed beyond belief maybe learning the western ways then going overboard picking the bad habits but I live with it and accept it but it is truly my opinion honest and true..

Here here! It has always since I have been here about "how much Thai's can get out of the falang Bank"smack's of rip off and I see ir more and more in the villages of Thailand. Most are too lazy to go and find a real job. Easier scamming the falang than go and work.

Can see the direction this thread is going in. But alas one can only nod in agreement with many of the statements. However maybe the concept of lazy is a western one. I think being 'lazy' is all part of the wider culture / excuse (you choose) of 'sanook'

Not saying you are implying it. But I am also sick and tired of hearing how every last problem that ever comes up in Thailand can somehow be directly related to being the fault of a farang somewhere. Really really sick of that... I dare say I would love to see how Thailand operated without ANY farang influence at all.. I am not saying it would be a better or worse place but it would be amazingly different just think for a moment how many things would NOT be here if you took every single NON Thai product or service away...

[somo]

Getting behind the wheel of a car seems to reveal much about character

The way people drive here is I think quite an accurate reflection of that.

No consideration for others drivers or pedestrians. They are jealous of anyone in front of them

and will cheat in order to steal a small bit of road.

Shame really.

[hellodolly]

And this notion that inner Bangkok is populated by the rich only is getting old.

You've obviously never been to Klong Toei, beautiful place, swimming pools, models waltzing around in bikinis, mercs and BMW in each and every drive way, impeccably manicured gardens. A very rich and salubrious district. Too rich? Perhaps sir might like to consider Klong Tan or Din Daeng, slightly less up-scale but still an enviable address for those with money to spend.

You are spot on- It's a myth created by people who live outside of Bangkok to justify their actions and prejudices. Similar to the old Dick Whittington story and the streets of London being paved with gold.

Is Thailand a caring society - I think the fairest assessment would be to say Thailand is as caring as any other 21st Century country. Unfortunately bad news makes good headlines as we often overlook the good in our society and focus on the bad.

Good post yes we don't like good news we say we do but all we eve do is look for the bad news. The Media may not be the sharpest tools in the shed but they know what the people want and that is what they give them.

On another note are you sure about this.

quote

" swimming pools, models waltzing around in bikinis, mercs and BMW in each and every drive way"

I can see the cars in the drive ways but swimming pools a bit inconvenient I would think.

Models good idea makes coming home for the man of the house some thing to look forward to not sure about the lady of the house.

Edited November 2, 2011 by hellodolly

[Kananga]

Getting behind the wheel of a car seems to reveal much about character

The way people drive here is I think quite an accurate reflection of that.

No consideration for others drivers or pedestrians. They are jealous of anyone in front of them

and will cheat in order to steal a small bit of road.

Shame really.

Its the same in wonderful, civilized Singapore. Seems to be an Asian trait.

A person once said the difference between a developed nation and a developing one is an understanding of 'the Greater Good'. That letting a car filter in to your lane in front of you may make your journey 0.5 seconds longer but will help the overall traffic flow ensuring everyone reaches their destination sooner.

Try explaining that concept to your average Bangkok driver.

[Thai at Heart]

Where is our uniquely caring Thai society?

As if they have a monopoly on caring. For a country where it is a sport to evade tax and resent any type of social distribution, what can anyone say?

[Dodobird]

The uniquely caring Thai society had submerged and no longer exist ever since the emerging of red, yellow and follow by the multi colour shirt. Now the latest is the "Wet Shirt"

[rogerdee123]

The uniquely caring Thai society had submerged and no longer exist ever since the emerging of red, yellow and follow by the multi colour shirt. Now the latest is the "Wet Shirt"

I prefer a wet t-shirt party

[travelmann]

Ha you look at Thai society and its brutal, uncaring and full of hypocrisy, lets not even mention the temples etc its all one big farce.

[travelmann]

"People have been selfishly hoarding masses of bottled drinking water and food, while cars are double- or even triple-parked on elevated roads with no regard to how it's affecting traffic. Then there is the constant bickering between the ruling Pheu Thai Party and opposition Democrats as both sides try to make the most out of this disaster, not to mention those who are so busy watching this political soap opera that they have no time to help. Adding to the spectacle are the movie stars and television hosts who see the floods as a chance to promote themselves."fairytale

Was it ever different? The only thing Thai people are interested in is themselves, themselves and themselves. If you do not walk around blind here you can see it every day everywhere in this country. The united, unique and caring society is a fairytale. Screw everybody for your own benefit, that is the motto of the vast majority here.

My view on Thai people is that they are greedy and selfish, well that is to say it is a generalised opinion and probably does not apply to everyone.

I was married to a Thai woman who had some academic achievements. I married her, not because she was the best ;looking woman in the bunch, but because she appeared to be intelligent and 'sorted'. It turned out that she was a liar and thief and a very clever manipulator. While with me she was seeing a boyfriend elsewhere and using my money to buy him gifts, such as a watch and an i-phone. She was always on about the dishonesty of bar girls and Esarn girls, but in fact she was worse than them. Addicted to shopping she swamped herself with brand names and ended up with so many clothes it was obscene. At the end she left me because she "wanted to be independent". But this was part of a manipulative lie. Pretending to want me to be her best friend and someone I could always rely on, she coaxed some cash out of me. Got as much as she thought she could get and then turned against me overnight in an attempt to extract a few more million. Yes, Wachiraporn is typical of the lying cheating and manipulative Thai person. They all pretend to be good buddhists sticking to the precepts ..... but hey! Look at the whisky they drink, the greed, the selfishness, the lies and the theft as well as the cheating on their wives and husbands. So come to Chiang Mai and see this ex wife of mine. Absolutely diabolical and unbelievable. The caring society? Yeah well........

Still, at least you came out of it without being weighed down by bitterness or resentment...

Yeah and Im sure you would have felt completely different eh???