Mia Pen Rai?

[siam-i-am]

Once again the new year for many Thai people is marred by grief of losing a loved one over the holidays or having the prospect of a paraphlegic in the family. For weeks before song kran the powers that be spent millions trying to educate everyone on how they should behave. No different to any other country on the planet. Its a fact the highest mortality is in teenagers (Teenagers are after all if you can remember that far back immortal) Yet the figures need not be so high. If everytime the police stopped someone for no helmet, grounded the bike until the rider or pillion had the correct head gear. To collect a few bhat and send them on their way is a (sick) joke they are children and will react as such, but tell a gawky kid or old fellow going to work that he has to walk, attitudes will change overnight. Is any amount of tea money worth one wheelchair bound kid? This policy has nothing to do with culture but everything to do with greed. I find it repugnant. How do these people sleep.

[mark45y]

Once again the new year for many Thai people is marred by grief of losing a loved one over the holidays or having the prospect of a paraphlegic in the family. For weeks before song kran the powers that be spent millions trying to educate everyone on how they should behave. No different to any other country on the planet. Its a fact the highest mortality is in teenagers (Teenagers are after all if you can remember that far back immortal) Yet the figures need not be so high. If everytime the police stopped someone for no helmet, grounded the bike until the rider or pillion had the correct head gear. To collect a few bhat and send them on their way is a (sick) joke they are children and will react as such, but tell a gawky kid or old fellow going to work that he has to walk, attitudes will change overnight. Is any amount of tea money worth one wheelchair bound kid? This policy has nothing to do with culture but everything to do with greed. I find it repugnant. How do these people sleep.

I hear where you are coming from.

God forbid any of my loved ones would die or anyone else for that matter.

I grew up riding a motorcycle without any helmet laws. I wore one most of the time.

I played hockey when goalies didn’t wear face masks or players helmets. I lost a couple of teeth. I also knocked out the four front teeth of my best friend during a practice game.

One of the reasons I came to Thailand is people have the burden to take responsibility for themselves. It is not a society of people babysitting for other people. Thailand will change fast enough to be another California or Singapore.

As for me I take responsibility for myself and don’t need any government or well wishers doing it for me. I have heard all the arguments about insurance payments and hospital expenses and am basically unmoved by them. It is a Darwin thing. If you are dumb enough to ride without a helmet and boots and if you can stand the heat, leathers then you will eliminate one of the lesser brains of the species and improve the race.

Sorry to disagree because I know you are probably motivated by the best reasons. But there are a lot of countries where everyone agrees with you, it might be a good idea to live in one of them. For me I agree with the majority of Thai’s. And I don’t mind paying the boys in brown a few baht when I don’t have my drivers license. That’s why I live here instead of one of the first world places where decisions are made for me by people who obviously know better at the expense of my individuality and freedom.

[siam-i-am]

Once again the new year for many Thai people is marred by grief of losing a loved one over the holidays or having the prospect of a paraphlegic in the family. For weeks before song kran the powers that be spent millions trying to educate everyone on how they should behave. No different to any other country on the planet. Its a fact the highest mortality is in teenagers (Teenagers are after all if you can remember that far back immortal) Yet the figures need not be so high. If everytime the police stopped someone for no helmet, grounded the bike until the rider or pillion had the correct head gear. To collect a few bhat and send them on their way is a (sick) joke they are children and will react as such, but tell a gawky kid or old fellow going to work that he has to walk, attitudes will change overnight. Is any amount of tea money worth one wheelchair bound kid? This policy has nothing to do with culture but everything to do with greed. I find it repugnant. How do these people sleep.

I hear where you are coming from.

God forbid any of my loved ones would die or anyone else for that matter.

I grew up riding a motorcycle without any helmet laws. I wore one most of the time.

I played hockey when goalies didn’t wear face masks or players helmets. I lost a couple of teeth. I also knocked out the four front teeth of my best friend during a practice game.

One of the reasons I came to Thailand is people have the burden to take responsibility for themselves. It is not a society of people babysitting for other people. Thailand will change fast enough to be another California or Singapore.

As for me I take responsibility for myself and don’t need any government or well wishers doing it for me. I have heard all the arguments about insurance payments and hospital expenses and am basically unmoved by them. It is a Darwin thing. If you are dumb enough to ride without a helmet and boots and if you can stand the heat, leathers then you will eliminate one of the lesser brains of the species and improve the race.

Sorry to disagree because I know you are probably motivated by the best reasons. But there are a lot of countries where everyone agrees with you, it might be a good idea to live in one of them. For me I agree with the majority of Thai’s. And I don’t mind paying the boys in brown a few baht when I don’t have my drivers license. That’s why I live here instead of one of the first world places where decisions are made for me by people who obviously know better at the expense of my individuality and freedom.

"God forbid any of my loved ones would die or anyone else for that matter"

Here's the rub Mark the Deity doesn't.

I don't want a nanny state, what put a Bee in my bonnett was a few holidays ago the officers in brown paraded half a dozen paraphlegics strapped in wheelchairs at the croweded bus terminal while the dribbling kids stared into space the same amount of officers were stood behind a table giving interviews to TV reporters, ride without a helmet etc by all means but the Dawins of this world have a nasty habit of taking innocents with them. I love living here and would not like it turned into another UK or USA, I guess these guys crosssed the moral line in my sand.

[Ajarn]

I don't want a nanny state, what put a Bee in my bonnett was a few holidays ago the officers in brown paraded half a dozen paraphlegics strapped in wheelchairs at the croweded bus terminal while the dribbling kids stared into space the same amount of officers were stood behind a table giving interviews to TV reporters, ride without a helmet etc by all means but the Dawins of this world have a nasty habit of taking innocents with them. I love living here and would not like it turned into another UK or USA, I guess these guys crosssed the moral line in my sand.

So, you think these paraplegics were kidnapped or forced to take part?

Did you consider for one minute that they might have volunteered to be 'paraded' in front of the media, hoping to maybe save a kid's life? Maybe that's all they can do?

More power to them, I say.

Edited April 19, 2006 by Ajarn

[mark45y]

I was in a Harley Davidson store looking at tee shirts when a hippy biker and his hippy chick walked in. There was an old rider there who was talking to them. As they left he said “Missy you all better dress for the road.” Florida repealed the helmet law a few years ago as have a few other states I think.

I rode a bike when I lived in the mountains, a Honda 750 Shadow and I raced ½ mile dirt track with an Enfield 500. I bought my first Honda 150 Dream in 1960. By far the most dangerous thing I have ever done on a motor bike was ride on a motor sci taxi in BKK. I have ridden in a lot of races but weaving out of traffic at high speeds on the back of a drugged up driver’s bike was completely frightening experience. It beat any rides I had taken at any amusement park.

I know it is too darn hot here to wear leathers most of the year but not to wear a helmet and decent shoes and long pants is just crazy. It is also crazy to drink but Prohibition did no good.

[likite]

I was kid of the 50's, a teenager of the 60's and the 70's.

I saw this a few years years ago and it still holds true:-

Childhood In 40's, 50's, 60's, & 70's.

"If you lived as a child in the 40's, 50's, 60's or 70's, it's hard to believe that we've lived as long as we have...

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Our cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cupboards, and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.

We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No mobile phones!

We got cut and broke bones and broke teeth, and there were no law suits from these accidents. They were ACCIDENTS. No one was to blame, but us. Remember accidents?

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, video games, 65 channels on pay TV, video tape movies, surround sound, personal mobile phones, Personal Computers, Internet chat rooms ... we had friends. We went round to their homes and talked to them. We ate patty cakes, bread and butter, and drank cordial, but we were never overweight ... because we were always outside playing.

We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one died from this.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls, and although we were told it would happen, we hardly ever 'put someone's eye out with that.'

Some students weren't as smart as others so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat it. Tests were not adjusted for any reason.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of.

Parents actually SIDED with the law against us!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers ever. The past 50 years has been an explosion of new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility. We learned how to deal with it all."

[p1p]

I will happily second that.

My Mother liked to report that the first time anybody in the family became ill with flu, cold or stomach bugs was when we had to drink "clean water". They discovered that our well was contaminated with an ancient carcass of a sheep, so piped in chlorinated rubbish. Result - everybody became ill within a month or two.

IMHO health comes not from clean food etc. but from sufficiently strong and varied flora in the gut to protect you from the occasional nasties that might visit.

[siam-i-am]

I don't want a nanny state, what put a Bee in my bonnett was a few holidays ago the officers in brown paraded half a dozen paraphlegics strapped in wheelchairs at the croweded bus terminal while the dribbling kids stared into space the same amount of officers were stood behind a table giving interviews to TV reporters, ride without a helmet etc by all means but the Dawins of this world have a nasty habit of taking innocents with them. I love living here and would not like it turned into another UK or USA, I guess these guys crosssed the moral line in my sand.

So, you think these paraplegics were kidnapped or forced to take part?

Did you consider for one minute that they might have volunteered to be 'paraded' in front of the media, hoping to maybe save a kid's life? Maybe that's all they can do?

More power to them, I say.

Read all of the topic Ajarn For one thing they didn't go of their own free will, they no longer have any, for the rest of their lives everything they do will depend on someone else. The point I'm making is if the guys in brown made everyone caught not wearing a helmet walk until they came back with required head wear instead of letting them get back on the bike the public wouldn't treat it like a game and maybe just maybe there'd be one less kid too "volunteer"