80pc of people hit by Phuket beach clean-up apply for help

What a great post and really an effort, too Such a nice change from the usual allowed on the Phuket forum.

Thanks

Reading some of the postings here makes me wonder at the apparent ignorance, as well as arrogance, of many falangs who live, work or holiday in Thaialnd.

In case it has escaped their notice, this is not the affluent West, where the welfare state lobs out redundancy and unemployment pay, job seekers' allowances, retirement pensions and other benefits at the general population like sweets and real poverty is a rarity.

Millions of Thais, unable to afford a decent education and with no formal qualifications (which you need here to get any kind of job which isn't slave labour) live on the breadline. Life for many families is literally a struggle for survival.

Is it really so difficult to understand why some Thais resort to bending rules and regulations (which are bent on a much bigger scale by the political and business elite who control their lives) and that some even resort to ripping off tourists and expats - whom they are brainwashed into believing are all wealthy - by overcharging for deckchairs and suchlike?

This is not a phenomenon unique to Thailand - It is routine in tourist resorts the world over. Personally, I don't begrudge paying a little over the odds to a beach masseuse or souvenir seller who makes less in a year than I get in a couple of months. It's almost a welcome change, in these days of increasing wealth inequality, to find an example of the relative poor ripping off the relative rich!

Seriously, though. A little humility would be in order from those resident falangs who enjoy a much better lifestyle than ever they could in their own countries precisely because of the ruthless exploitation of the vast majority of the indigenous labour force.