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Rosetta Stone Thai Snl

Filipplenoir

By Filipplenoir
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Filipplenoir

Posted
Posted (edited)

Remember Hans Andersen's story, 'The Emperor's New Clothes,' we
all read as children? Remember how we laughed at the stupidity of the crowd that kept up the pretense until it was absolutely certain that they
would lose face by keeping the secret any longer.



Recent news stemming from the Thailand, could make one think of
the Anderson's story again. Some of the officials here are trying to censor
YouTube video that ridicules Thailand's notorious well-deserved reputation for
being a Mecca for sex tourists. This video was made by the American television
program, Saturday Night Live, and was destined for the Western audience. And many in the

Western world surely laughed. Not directly at Thais, but at weird looking
Western men trying to learn Thai phrases that deal with buying sexual services,
although there were implications against Thailand’s
general acceptance of such activities.



But Thais were not laughing. In fact many officials took this
pun quite seriously.



According to the Global Post, the Thai Ministry of Culture
"is aghast that the video depicts Thailand as "a source for sexual
services”. And according to Thailand’s
largest newspaper (Thai Rath), "the ministry plans to file a complaint
with the U.S. embassy with hopes that the American government will rid this
sketch from the Web".



Surely, some Western viewers might think that perhaps SNL went
too far by trying to make fun of the problem Thailand might have. Surely, many
Thai citizens might find it insulting for the foreigners to make fun of their
country. But the prevalance of sex
workers is obvious in Thailand. I will not discuss here the cultural roots of
the prostitution and 'mia chao' (wife
for hire) in Thailand. I will also not argue whether prostitution is good or
evil. But prostitution is certainly an indicator of the economical and social
development of any society.



When one sees many
young Thai women and teens selling their
bodies to men one cannot but wonder. Does the government care? Does the society
care? Do these girls care? Do these men care?



The men must care! The flocks of males that inundate the
numerous massage parlors, striptease bars and clubs in Bangkok are as diverse
as they currencies they use: some are Thai, some are foreign, some are rich,
some are poor, some are married and some are single. And if one travels southwest
of Bangkok to the town of Pattaya he or she will immediately understand that basically
only the Russian families come to Pattaya for the beaches.



Certainly prostitution has existed in Thailand for centuries,
but no one before has dared to shovel the problem into Thai faces, [not true,
really, there have been plenty of movies, punch lines from comedians, etc.]
that they are so scared to lose. Over the centuries Thais and other Asian
societies have coexisted with this cultural phenomenon, letting some members of
their society to be engaged in selling and others in buying sex. Sex for sale
and family structure were regarded as independent and not obstructing, perhaps
even complementing each other. Only in the 1930s was polygamy legally abolished in Thailand, but many men still
have 'second wives' at present. But the puritanical Americans [not just
Americans, come on!] whose men for lack of options at home are flocking to
Pattaya do see a problem with prostitution for that matter the whole society
where women are subservient to men (even though current Thai Prime Minister is
a woman). Americans whose righteous political leaders regularly plead with the
public and their wives for the sin of adultery certainly see a problem with sex
for sale and want to expose countries that harbor it. Henceforth it is only
natural for the Thais to be "aghast" that the Western media decided
to expose elements of Thai society that are not supposed to be discussed in
public. For Thais, it is just bad taste. As it is to criticize those in power,
even though they might be wrong or corrupt. As it was elegantly put by one
Asian leader (whose country is also on the itinerary of many sex seeking
westerners) "You call it corruption, but we call it family values". Will
the Thai government succeed in blocking the video from YouTube? certainly not!
Has the government lost face because of the
ridiculous comments? You bet they have! In this respect SNL was like the
young boy in Andersen's story who said what everyone knew but never dared to
say. Did the government have a choice of not reacting to the pun [it wasn’t a
pun]? They did not. They had to appear shocked and appalled that Thailand was
presented in such a bad light. But doing their duty they lost face even more
since now we, the Westerners know that
the Thai know, that we know that many tourists
come to Thailand not for beautiful beaches but for other more intimate
purposes . This year Thailand boasted of hosting 23 million foreign tourists. I
wonder - how much money did the sex industry get? There are estimates you could
have looked up. And who is in charge of that 'Disneyland' for adult men? This
continues to lose focus.



Perhaps there is no need to delve into Thai history and culture
when discussing this topic. Perhaps we
only need to study family ties of certain Thais. Suffice to say that the Mayor
of Pattaya, Khun Itipon is a younger brother of Khun Sontaya, the Thailand's
new Minister for Culture.

Edited by Filipplenoir
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