The week that was in Thailand news: Foreigners join the Thais in putting their foot in it!

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The week that was in Thailand news: Foreigners join the Thais in putting their foot in it!

 

 

For a nation that has such a big problem with feet and the direction they are pointing, they sure seem to be used a lot. Visitors are often regaled by cultural advice to keep your feet – and especially the soles – to yourself. Some of the worst insults in the Thai language use that part of the anatomy rather more than bits further up favored by cussing foreigners.

So it is surprising to witness in many cases that the best way to resolve conflict seems to be to plant that offensive item squarely in your adversary’s face. I can only think that it is the influence of Thai boxing on the general public but I really would like to see a return to those romantic days when adversaries put up their guard, had a good bout of fisticuffs then shook hands and moved on. Perhaps the Thais could reinvent the “Keensbelly Rules”.

Certainly it was a week when those rules of pugilism could have saved a fair few stitches though it was rules of a different kind – or the lack of enforcement thereof– that resulted in serious and frankly avoidable loss of life in the tragic boat accident in Ayuthaya.

However top early week story for posters of Thaivisa was not the 28 deaths of innocents on the Chao Praya that equally tragically many see as just another day in Thailand, but the one in Pattaya where the boot seemed to very much be on the other foot.

I refer to the beating handed out by four bulky, burly and tattooed prizefighters otherwise referred to as foreign residents of Pattaya. In this case these were big-bikers, literally, who were travelling in a car for some reason and knocked over a Thai guy’s bike.

Three skinny Thais gave chase and when the occupants of the car emerged one didn’t fancy 3 vs 4 especially as flyweight vs heavyweight is not usually a good idea. The two that remained got the obligatory boots to the bonce – repeatedly.

Many posters found crumbs of poetic justice – I just saw pathetic justice and hope just like the feet first fighters in Hua Hin back at Songkran these thugs get a similar couple of years of Thai porridge even if there are mitigating circumstances.

And to show there is no favoritism in me, at least that length of time should be handed out to the security guard a few kilometers west in Sri Racha who continually used his boots on a Thai youth’s hapless head. So what if the youth had sworn that the guard was an animal born of animal parents – at least he was partially right.

Both the above events were, like seemingly all news these days, caught on CCTV or video. The boat accident had views from both inside and outside the doomed vessel as it collided with a bank and sank within seconds. Life jackets were not the issue as their use could well have made the matter worse but the overloading certainly was.

One can only hope that some lessons might be learnt and that the tourism and sports minister Khun Kobkarn was watching after her promise to make boat accidents a thing of the past.

Though perhaps as this involved Thais in headscarves rather than tourists the matter is probable considered a tad less pressing.

However, the elegant minister did think that the issue of “zero-dollar” tours was worth her valuable time as a huge gathering at Central World tried to rake back some of the money lost to the public coffers by those who would dare to undercut the government.  Under her auspices new “memorandums of understanding” are now being put in place – as if anyone needed to remind the Chinese about the value of money.

So, thankfully, money will be saved while saving lives can come later…..

Other accidents waiting to happen were as much comical as concerning this week as highlighted by the UK’s Guardian who managed to get hold of the story of 41 people crammed into a van under the noses of what passes for the Thai press. The inevitable YouTube video showed the cops counting the foreign workers off the van barely able to keep a straight face.

Mind you they are often caught smiling at the grisliest of crime scenes – I suppose it helps them get through your average day on the beat.

Further evidence of overloading on public transport came in the shape of a Facebook post by a minivan traveler where there was not even enough standing room. Not enough minivans, was her gripe, though I would be happy if I never saw another one in my life.

I shall probably get my wish the next time one cuts in front of me on my motorbike.

Talking of which it was gruesome to see two bikers wrapped around a lamppost in yet another video but ghoulishly amusing to see the reaction of Thais on this occasion. Someone had photo-shopped a spirit of a dead victim emerging from the corpse and the locals were outraged. Who would do such a despicable thing!

No one seemed interested in the pick-up that had caused the accident.

It always seems that you should never mess with the Thais and their almost universal belief in the supernatural. It’s just not clicket.

However, if there is one issue more dear to the Thai heart than ghouls and ghosts then it has to be gambling which led to a story that piqued the posters’ passions on Thai visa as much as the pulverizing in Pattaya.

I refer to the story of the pensioners carted off to the nick by soldiers for playing dominos. Of course it was not just dominos – plenty of cards and mahjongg tiles were also found in the “den” – but I disagree with some posters who claim the headline was misleading. Like bridge, perhaps, there is nothing innocent in dominos in Thailand!

For the Thais will bet on anything and there doesn’t need to be money around to make an arrest – I’d wager that if the police found a notepad with a few numbers in it next to two flies climbing up a window they would look for someone to fine 1,000 baht.

Good news coming out the local education system this week was not that the children had learnt anything but that the teacher in the “mugging” incident may well learn his particular lesson. Cops may charge Paitoon with GBH for hurling the coffee mug that disfigured a 17 year old student.

And they really meant Grievous Bodily Harm rather than the usual Go Back Home tickle on the wrist commonly associated with punishments meted out to those that should protect rather than assault our children

Though in Pathum Thani protecting the kids was even more disgustingly absent when it emerged that a school there had let an 11 year child go home with a rapist. I would like to see the administrators of that establishment share floor space with the man now in custody for a few dozen semesters.

And so to this week’s awards. Lenience award went to the court that handed a suspended sentence to the Brit in Chiang Mai for child pornography and detaining a child. Though perhaps this was partly explained by the fact he could speak Thai and had spent time in the monkhood. Thais are always more apt to believe a tale when it is explained in their own tongue while despite much evidence to the contrary wearing orange still garners a smidgeon of respect.

Best Forum Comment of the Week concerned the story about Thailand holding the Expat Fair 2016 because foreigners love the kingdom so much. I wouldn’t dispute that personally but I did admire “Thechook” who mentioned that all was not rosy for the expats when it came to the perennial dual pricing issue saying: “Having bigger feet that take up more room in parks doesn’t cut it!”

There it was – those feet we hear so much about raising their ugly head again!

Nasty murder of the week and headline of the week went to one and the same story namely the taxi driver who was shot in the head for some reason east of Bangkok. The cab with its unfortunate man inside rolled into a fishpond and was half submerged while the gunman escaped by stealing “a Pakistani ice-cream seller’s motorbike”.

Such is the wacky world of Thai news that it took a dozen posts or more before someone said “You just can’t make it up!”

The same could also be said to refer to the biggest story of the week still breaking as I write – the round-up of foreigners connected to passport forgery and a cut up blond guy in the fridge in Sukhumvit. It will be fascinating where that leads in the coming days and weeks.

The funny bone tickling awards I jointly award to the Samui beach operators who want the child beggars from Cambodia and Vietnam pestering tourists to be charged with taking Thai jobs and the mass gathering of Bangkok’s finest who finally decided that the horrendous traffic in the capital is caused by there being…wait for it….too many cars.

Finally the sight of the Bung Karn governor and school children setting fire to a giant 8 ton pile of ganja gave me mixed feelings. Sure I get the warnings to youth about the peril of drugs but I thought the authorities were trying to promote the Thai “herb” industry for cancer sufferers and wouldn’t the potential tax on such a crop help finance the drive to eradicate some more serious drugs?

Like the foreign Hell’s Angels in Pattaya, maybe the Thais put their foot in it.

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2016-09-24

 

 

 

 

 

[aslimversgwm]

Great Sunday reading and a succinct week's roundup - as always.

Thanks so much for brightening my day on yet another dull, drizzly day here in Chiang Mai.

[Graemej100]

Always worth a read on a Sunday and, as usual, the week well summed up - albeit tongue and cheek. Good on ya.

[arithai12]

2 hours ago, aslimversgwm said:

Great Sunday reading and a succinct week's roundup - as always.

Thanks so much for brightening my day on yet another dull, drizzly day here in Chiang Mai.

Not a drop today where I live in CM and as far as my eyes can see. I guess it's a very large city now.

[alofthailand]

 

[Torrens54]

Top commentary!

If I were still running a Newsroom, I'd offer you a paid gig.

Cheers from CNX.