Only in Thailand? Old woman unblocking the drains wows a million netizens!

 

Picture: Thai Rath

 

BANGKOK: -- An old woman being public spirited has wowed more than a million Thais online after she was filmed clearing the drains of litter.

 

The unnamed "aunty" praised in a Thai Rath story was using a metal rod to spear litter that was snarling up the drain outside the Klong Jan post office on Seri Thai road in downtown Bangkok yesterday , reported Thai Rath.

 

After heavy rains hit the capital on Wednesday night many streets were flooded causing traffic chaos and blocked drains were one of the main culprits.

 

Facebook poster Yupadee Vongtaweesub was passing as she saw the lady doing her bit so she started filming.

 

A staggering one and a quarter million people viewed the clip that was shared more than 5,000 times across social media.

 

Source: Thai Rath

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2017-05-26

 

apparently the public works department didn't see or didn't care about the video.  They must have been very busy not on the internet.

"Only in Thailand"? I don't get that.

"Only in Thailand would people be surprised to see people doing what their government and utilities should have done in the first place"? That makes more sense.

Good on her, and my missus wouldn't even clean her own litter....

Well done to this lady. Litter in the drains is a huge problem as you can see from yesterday's flooding. We can all do our bit by simply putting our litter in the bin. But I don't think I need to be telling any fellow members this. 

37 minutes ago, rkidlad said:

Well done to this lady. Litter in the drains is a huge problem as you can see from yesterday's flooding. We can all do our bit by simply putting our litter in the bin. But I don't think I need to be telling any fellow members this. 

 

Not so sure about that. Ask some farang who have rented houses and condos to other farang.

 

Most renters are clean and tidy but there's also some farang pigs.

 

Bring the motor cycle into the living room, put grease and oil all other the ceramic tiles and damage the tiles then wipe the oil and grease off their hands on the curtains, and more.

Most Thai people would say "Its not my job to clean drains".  That is for a low class person. No its not !  Its an important job, same as all the good ladies who sweep the roads to prevent all the rubbish getting into the drains. 

Lift up the drain and get your arm in there dear. Half hearted doesn't cut it.

 

 

Find a lot of older Thais have a strong work ethic.  Many drive recycle carts.   They work hard and do the country a favor.

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Facebook poster Yupadee Vongtaweesub was passing as she saw the lady doing her bit so she started filming.

 

Such a sacrifice and show of courage, to do the right thing, is a good example of social responsibility. This humble, selfless act should make people proud of their fellow citizen. A LinkedIn user would have never stopped to do that.

 

Good on this lady for doing her bit, but until those at the top have a clear strategy on doing something about the mountains of garbage around the country things will only get worse.

It all ends up in the gulf and litters all the beaches along the peninsula.  

 

She may be doing this cleaning out of necessity.  Maybe it's the spot she's paid for to park her noodle cart and dump her waste.

Very few people here willing to perform manual labor and especially voluntarily and one that involves cleaning or is considered a job for the lower class (as they are taught). 

As far as anyone up the food chain doing anything about it.. hahaha.  There's no money in it and it's probably looked down on.  Help me find one person "at the top" that goes above and beyond the call of duty, that puts hope in this country, that is willing to lead by example.  

 

Go to any "clean up day" event here and it's 95% farang doing the picking up with thais looking on in puzzled amazement at the stupid farang all while littering... 555

 

I hope she had a plan for getting rid of that rubbish, otherwise it will just wash back into the system.

1 hour ago, rkidlad said:

Well done to this lady. Litter in the drains is a huge problem as you can see from yesterday's flooding. We can all do our bit by simply putting our litter in the bin. But I don't think I need to be telling any fellow members this. 

I am here in Nha Trang Vietnam for a vacation, every street has a bunch of workers pulling up garbage, plastic, mud from all the storm drains in PREPARING for the flood season which is right around the corner, not waiting until it starts raining to find out the drains are clogged.  With so much constructions going on, the sites are tasked with cleaning up their own  areas around the OUTSIDE of the site because of runoff of sand, dirt dropped from trucks etc etc etc.    Hats off to the lady, but it is the Govt's  responsibility.............local populace..... you should name and shame all that work for Govt that aren't doing their job on social media.

Guess it's true here if you want something done you have to do it yourself TIT

even here in the far north, people identify those blocked drains as a big part of bangkok's water problems

3 hours ago, ezzra said:

Good on her, and my missus wouldn't even clean her own litter....

My missis, and Thais in general just do not SEE litter. The same tin can can lie in the street for weeks.

 

But ezzra, why not let her sleep in th bed instead of the cat basket !

3 hours ago, rkidlad said:

Well done to this lady. Litter in the drains is a huge problem as you can see from yesterday's flooding. We can all do our bit by simply putting our litter in the bin. But I don't think I need to be telling any fellow members this. 

"We can all do our bit by simply putting our litter in the bin. "

Absolutely true, except many of the bins were removed years ago following the Bin Laden days. Terrorists like to use trash bins to hide their bombs, so finding somewhere to deposit garbage is often difficult for people.

2 hours ago, jaiyen said:

Most Thai people would say "Its not my job to clean drains".  That is for a low class person. No its not !  Its an important job, same as all the good ladies who sweep the roads to prevent all the rubbish getting into the drains. 

But the problem is they love to dispose garbage improperly!

Ooooooh, those netizens again!

Maybe they should not wow this woman (though it is very good to see, that someone is actually doing something useful), but DEMAND action of their governing bodies!

But that would - of course- mean to get up from behind your iPhone and actually DO something, instead of pressing "like" on your facebook - page!

1 hour ago, ratcatcher said:

"We can all do our bit by simply putting our litter in the bin. "

Absolutely true, except many of the bins were removed years ago following the Bin Laden days. Terrorists like to use trash bins to hide their bombs, so finding somewhere to deposit garbage is often difficult for people.

True. I end up carrying mine in my bag 'til I can find a bin. Still have emotional scars of being whopped round the back of the head if I ever dropped litter on the floor. 

...oh..i forgot filming is more important than helping.

6 hours ago, TunnelRat69 said:

Hats off to the lady, but it is the Govt's  responsibility.............local populace..... you should name and shame all that work for Govt that aren't doing their job on social media.

And then land in jail due to the new computer act.

I'm going to break with my normal posting policy and ask what are the odds she took out everything she could sell for scrap and dumped the rest back into the drain?  I only ask because I've seen so many recyclers dumping a rubbish can on the ground, picking out the recyclables then putting the rest back into the bin.  For which they have my admiration, BTW.  They could leave it on the ground and walk away.

 

In any case, the publicity is great.  Maybe it will catch on.

 

 

 

First go to the shops on the street where the clogged drain will be clear- ask the shops owner to contribute a little money, tell them you are organizing a team of school kids to do the job and reward them , so if the shops have some foods stuffs to contribute e.g. coca cola, chocolate etc., that would be good.

Make it a fun thing for the kids, give them each a little badge to wear after all done the work, it's cheap to get those badge- made in many of those shops in Bangkok.

This should be done with the help of the education department- a process of learning in environment. The kids would receive a small amount of cash.

The kids will wear T-shirts that says - "Helping to unclog drain is a kind act"

They think it's amazing because?  ....they are too lazy to do that?

lady does a nice thing- thaigeezers criticize her- saweet!

to me, this highlights the 5 million people who should be doing this but are too lazy and uncaring to do so

12 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

Not so sure about that. Ask some farang who have rented houses and condos to other farang.

 

Most renters are clean and tidy but there's also some farang pigs.

 

Bring the motor cycle into the living room, put grease and oil all other the ceramic tiles and damage the tiles then wipe the oil and grease off their hands on the curtains, and more.

Farangs do all that do they? Shows how bad their standards have dropped since moving here, I wonder where they caught that dirty habit from?

10 hours ago, wgdanson said:

My missis, and Thais in general just do not SEE litter. The same tin can can lie in the street for weeks.

 

But ezzra, why not let her sleep in th bed instead of the cat basket !

Yup i agree, even when you have daily streetsweepers in the street.

For some reason those streetsweepers also won't clean flat toads from roads. 

 

But even when they throw their litter in bins, the soidogs will get it all out at night.