Oldgringo 1943-2012 R.i.p.

[daoyai]

I also felt this thread was proceeding in a fashion that reflected his posting style, an apt tribute. Carry on. Would like to see his artwork, any online?

[BookMan]

I also felt this thread was proceeding in a fashion that reflected his posting style, an apt tribute. Carry on. Would like to see his artwork, any online?

Is there any artwork at all? Who is this mysterious artist 'old gringo'?.

[watcharacters]

Posted 2012-03-14 20:39:07

OldGringo, on 2012-03-14 20:10:31, said:

SoloFlyer, on 2012-03-14 12:42:36, said:

OldGringo, on 2012-03-14 12:19:38, said:

JingerBen, on 2012-03-13 19:01:53, said:

There was a story out a few days ago that said the goverment was talking about raising the foreign ownership percentage in condominiums to 70% from 49%... or whatever it is now.

If that goes through, which it probably will, the actual foreign ownership will be as close to 100% as makes no difference.

At least that will make it easier to calculate demographics.

But however you figure it I think we're a long way from 33%.

There may have been some motive for quoting such a grossly inflated figure.Farang-only ownership and or occupation of condominium buildings and moo-bahns might not be such a bad thing.

It would further reduce the often contentious interaction between them and local Thais.

The farangs who are overwhelming Chiang Mai at present are totally incapable of integrating or assimilating in any meaningful way. They just don't have the background. And even if they did, their sheer numbers would preclude it.

Middle-class mediocrities who are trying to re-establish lifestyles shattered by mass third-world immigration and the resulting economic and social decline in their own countries. They can't afford to live the way they used to anymore. So they come here.

And the retirees... old farts who have spent their lives as wage-slaves in mind-numbing jobs are suddenly emancipated into a country they were only vaguely aware of until recently.

The easy avaliability of girls on the game to entertain these old goats makes a "Blue Angel" scenario almost inevitable.

Given this situation the 100% ownership solution would be to everyones advantage.Can I "half-like" this?No.

That would imply that you only had half a brain. And, or, your virility was impaired by having only one testicle.

But presuming that you are of sound mind and scrotum, I will try to explain my apparent animus toward farangs. My own people.

I first came here in the 1970's when Chiang Mai was, by broad agreement, a truly beautiful place.

At that time a farang settling here had to live among Thais, to one extent or another, almost by necessity. There weren't many other options unless you had a lot of money.

Sure, there were always exceptions. Farangs who led a life apart. But they had their own organizations and peer support.

Religious, goverment, and corporate people cut off from the culture and frequently acting like a**holes out of ignorance.

This expat lifestyle has now become the norm with western tastes being catered to on every conceivable level.

The city has been transformed to accomodate foreigners.

It's true that Thais, especially the younger ones participate with alacrity. Their own culture being something they only practice and honour occasionly.

Only the more perceptive and intelligent among them have any idea of what they've lost.

R.I.P. Chiang Mai.

A "Blue Angel" scenario....really. I think I studied that in history, ancient history at that. If you are that old, and have been here in CM that long then I am sorry that others are now getting to enjoy themselves here. How dare they. CM should have stayed your own private fifedom.

Meanwhile back at the OP. Some media reports are including residential land owned by a Thai spouse in the calculation which is patently absurd but would no doubt give CM a higher percentage. Take it for what it is, a nationalistic national enquirer type piece that seeks not to inform but feed prejudice. Will be forgotten about, but dragged up again and again with the only alteration a simple date change.

Edited by mamborobert, 2012-03-14 20:48:38.

did oldGringo have any close Faland/expat friends?

[CMHomeboy78]

I also felt this thread was proceeding in a fashion that reflected his posting style, an apt tribute. Carry on. Would like to see his artwork, any online?

Thanks for your interest..

I've made an arrangement with his family - wife and two grown children - to print one of his designs, a real beauty, as a T-shirt.

It's a semi-nude girl riding a tiger with "Lucy's Tiger Den...Bangkok" in letters that are sort of like chinese brushstrokes..

Gringo knew Tiger Rydberg, Lucy's boyfriend and co-owner of the ginmill in Bangkok. I didn't, I was never part of the bar-scene.

If it's a success - and this is the crowning irony - it will probably be worn by grotty old farangs holding hands with girls less than half their age. Just the kind of degenerates that Gringo loathed!

Anyway, thanks again.

[elektrified]

I also felt this thread was proceeding in a fashion that reflected his posting style, an apt tribute. Carry on. Would like to see his artwork, any online?

Is there any artwork at all? Who is this mysterious artist 'old gringo'?.

One of the other alter egos.

[BookMan]

I also felt this thread was proceeding in a fashion that reflected his posting style, an apt tribute. Carry on. Would like to see his artwork, any online?

Is there any artwork at all? Who is this mysterious artist 'old gringo'?.

One of the other alter egos.

without proof to the contrary it seems that way

[onthedarkside]

Another off topic post removed.

[TheVicar]

methinks...

were not 'guests', we live here now.

Guests?

We don't even qualify as guests here. I wasn't invited; were you?

We're more like party-crashers - and Chiang Mai was a party in the 70's and into the early 80's as anyone who was here at the time could tell you.

But then again, maybe not. There's an old saying, "If you can remember Chiang Mai in the 70's, you weren't there".

But I can, and I was; sometimes anyway. In my more lucid moments I could enlighten you in all sorts of ways.

Nowadays, we've crashed a party that has ended...a banquet hall deserted. The feast has been consumed - everything from fruit to nuts - and the pits and bones spit out on the floor.

All that's left is the debris and a bunch of know-nothing greenhorns to debate the issue in pubs and on internet forums.

You're just getting old and spouting sentimental nonsense. If foreigners are living here legally, they are no longer guests. That's true in other countries, including the home country of the person whom you are paying tribute to. "In my more lucid moments I could enlighten you in all sorts of ways." Sentimental nonsense and completely self-serving. And well beyond your original tribute.

Nor does this fit in well with your statement about how farangs need to learn more about Thai culture: "I've made an arrangement with his family - wife and two grown children - to print one of his designs, a real beauty, as a T-shirt.

It's a semi-nude girl riding a tiger with "Lucy's Tiger Den...Bangkok" in letters that are sort of like chinese brushstrokes.." That's a tribute to Thai culture? Give me a break! I'm sure Lucy's Tiger den symbolized by a semi-nude girl riding a Tiger (a not so discreet sexual symbol) is just the kind of things most Thais of culture would deem antithetical to their own culture, especially in Chiang Mai. So now you're spouting hypocritical nonsense too.

Edited November 25, 2012 by TheVicar

[Oww]

Good post Vicar. I was thinking the same thing. Oh, and yet another farang who is 'more culturally assimilated' and 'better liked by Thais' and looks down on the other 'cruder farangs'. However as his own peer testifies: "His early years here, being given over to his pleasure as a stoner and cocksman" ....Somehow I have no hard time believing that lots of local Thais that knew him have their own less favourable opinions about the 'Oldgringo'.

[CMHomeboy78]

This seems to be the topic that refuses to die.

At the risk of prolonging it even more, let me thank everybody who responded.

Those who knew Gringo, with their memories and necessarily mixed emotions, and those whose knowlege and experience of Chiang Mai are limited and short. Their callow opinions added interest, if nothing else, to the thread.

It was a vindication of the belief that Chiang Mai has too many of you here. You're no doubt posting from a modern condo, hi-rise apartment or gated community, safely isolated from anything or anybody even remotely connected with traditional life.

Somehow I just can't see you in an old teak house surrounded by your Thai and look-kreung family.

But who knows, I may be wrong.

Gringo and others who assimilated, to one extent or another, had a totally different life here.

You would be as incapable of understanding him as he was of understanding you. It's not that people like him and local Thais dislike you, it's just that they would prefer you were less opinionated, judgemental and bloody arrogant.

But Kohn Muang have always had to deal with human-waves of obnoxious outsiders, whether Burmese, Bangkok Thais or Jeen Haws. Now it's farangs.

Chiang Mai has survived them all.

May the city and people always survive. Especially the classy girls with the cultural traditions that were part of their upbringing and define the lovely word "sa-nay".