humanity in Thailand

[soalbundy]

Despite the many negative comments made about Thai's,and i am just as guilty, there is a side to them that surprises me. In my village that i have lived in for 10 years now is a 50 year old woman who can't speak words, she can utter sounds (very loudly) but cant form words,she can hear and understands both the Khamern and Thai language. She isn't in any way mentally impaired and looks after herself well. In farang land she would be shunned but here she is well integrated and sits and 'talks' with people of all ages. When there is a village procession she is always placed at the front carrying a banner or whatever. She has tried to communicate with me on many occasions and while i am polite and try my best i feel extremely embarrassed and am always glad to get away,afterwards i feel ashamed that i cant make more of an effort.

 

As for using us as ATM's this is not always true. My stepdaughter 21 goes to University and has a little business on the side,she is a hard headed business woman who will do well for herself. I borrowed 20,000 Baht from her about a year ago when we were going through tough financial times (hasn't got much better), recently i approached her and apologized that i hadn't yet paid her back,she looked astonished, ''That doesn't matter, you're papa''. She will shortly give birth and isn't yet married to her boyfriend but will do so shortly,when her biological father heard that they were to be married he met with her and her mother, my partner, to talk about 'sin sod' she retorted,''You don't get a penny, papa (me) has looked after us all these years,he gets the sin sod and he doesn't even want it''. He exploded and shouted at her that she ought to be ashamed of ignoring her father to which she replied,''Papa is my father''. She isn't an emotional person so this sign of gratitude surprised me.

 

These are just two examples but i have witnessed many occasions where humanity and kindness were shown to others which wouldn't normally be be observed in my country at least. While i do join in the Thai bashing i do remember that they also have very good sides to them, ought to be said.

[tonray]

Good post except when you descended to 'west bashing'. The old woman would not be shunned in America...at least not where I came from. You are attempting to generalize about Thai behavior or Western behavior and you cannot really do that because there are many beggars around my soi who are shunned every day as people walk past and don't even look at them. Generalizing about a society from a few isolated cases is not accurate.

[soalbundy]

1 hour ago, tonray said:

Good post except when you descended to 'west bashing'. The old woman would not be shunned in America...at least not where I came from. You are attempting to generalize about Thai behavior or Western behavior and you cannot really do that because there are many beggars around my soi who are shunned every day as people walk past and don't even look at them. Generalizing about a society from a few isolated cases is not accurate.

I didn't intend to bash the West. I'm from the UK, people needing help go to social security (i haven't been there for 40 years so what it's like now i cant say) kindness has been institutionalized, i'm not saying that people in the west are unkind but it seems to me that when someone helps in the West it is somehow noteworthy instead of being normal. Yes, true, one cant generalize from isolated cases, i can only speak of where i live, i have found some very helpful farang here in Thailand as well. 

[robblok]

Does not suprise me much about your stepdaughter. I raised 2 for 4 years in the Netherlands and they are still in contact with my family and consider my dad their granddad. I am still in contact with them even though they are in the Netherlands / Belgium and I am here. When they go to Thailand they always visit me (and their biological father).

 

Thais are no different from any other humans I know they are not always out to get us and respond well to kindness too (like everyone else). There are just a lot of bitter expats here that have been taken for a ride because they thought with their wrong head.

 

I have had a divorce unfortunately .. but the Thai woman did not want a thing except for what she put int he marriage. I seen her friends pay for housing of their foreign bf's. Fact is if they really love you and are not married for your money then they react just the same as anyone you know back home.  (maybe some cultural difference but not super much)