Before America Came, Thailand Was Pure

It’s an often heard charge and foreigners swinging into Bangkok keep on blaming themselves to this day, at least some:

Since the mid-1960’s, when U.S. soldiers arrived from Nam for serious R&R, Thai officials keep lamenting the decline in morality.

American soldiers had a good time in Bangkok, business for massage parlors was booming – and innocence died.

The fishbowl was born.

Not that to this day most supply caters for the local market, but, well, sense of guilt is a major ingredient of the Occidental:

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Comments

10 Responses to “Before America Came, Thailand Was Pure”

Chris on August 4th, 2009 3.29 am

The “fishbowl” has a long history going way back into China and Japan. As I recall from your Dr. Saul post a while ago, approximately 70 percent of commercial sex transactions in Thailand involve Thai men and Thai women. Another 12 percent involve Thai ladyboys and a mix of Thai men and non-Thai men. Another 11 percent are in the gay area with Thai men and a mix of Thai men and non-Thai men.

Leaving a mere 7 percent of all the commercial sex transactions in Thailand between Thai men, Thai ladyboys and Thai women, and assorted non-Thai men and women: European, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Arab/Muslim, etc.

http://absolutelybangkok.com/dr-saul-thailand-tackle-worlds-desire-deficit/
Talen on August 4th, 2009 10.47 am

I agree with the title of this article but I think rather than the fish bowls the fast food scene is what’s ruining Thailand.

Burger King, McDonald’s, KFC and Starbucks all American exports that are ruining Thailand little by little.

You can still find some Thai culture in a massage parlor … at least more than you’ll find in line at McDonald’s.
MongerSEA on August 4th, 2009 11.02 am

“Thai officials keep lamenting the decline in morality” … and keep taking the bribes and other benefits of corruption that come along with it. It’s good that Thais never stray far from their traditional core values: venality and duplicity.
Leveller 69 on August 4th, 2009 1.30 pm

Sex is beyond good and evil.

Maybe it was the Chinese played a key role in commercial sex transcactions before them there was Siamese polygamy and sin-free sex just like having a cuppa tea with someone was the extra-moral shagadelic norm here!! It makes me laugh when puritanical right wing Thais say sexy clothes and exposure of flesh are against Thai culture and un-Thai. Most women were topless 150 years ago the liberated civilized days for sure!
Thailand » Current News Trends on August 4th, 2009 4.30 pm

[...] Before America Came, Thailand Was Pure [...]
Roland on August 4th, 2009 6.28 pm

Visitors to Thailand going back to the 16th century commented on the delightful commercial sex scene in Siam. I’ve never been able to buy in to the myth that there was no commercial sex before the U.S. military bases in the 1960’s. What the Americans did was bring it out more into the open. I admit I prefer the Thai way of a little discretion and privacy.
chdarat on August 5th, 2009 11.20 am

I agree with Roland but what the Americans did that is more damaging is they branded us with that image.

Leveller 69: 200 years ago, most Thai women wore no bras, that did not make them whores nor did they made themselves freely available for sex on every street corners. It was just the cultural fashion of the time. Thai men then did not only see boobies and went mad.

Then when puritanical white men came, only saw that as representation of savagery and made it their tasks to clothe and educate us! They left us with their legacy the concept of original sin which never was in our consciousness before!

Remember that paradise is a western terminology; you created it, lost it and spend most of your time searching for it while we simply live in it!
Critical on August 5th, 2009 11.38 am

For a review of how the Thai elite and dictators exploited the opportunity presented by American servicemen on R&R, see Khi Kwai’s “Who Sold Thailand?” at http://khikwai.com/blog/2008/12/03/thailand-for-sale-by-whom-exactly/.
Qualtrough on August 5th, 2009 3.20 pm

This issue keeps popping up periodically. Sometime between 1980-84 a brilliant letter appeared in the BKK Post. It opened with 4 or 5 quotes remarking on the free availability of women in Thailand for pay or not for pay, and then followed by dating the quotes from between the 16th century and something like 1932. It was a brilliant ripost to those Thais and Farangs who believe that it was the West that ruined a good thing. If someone has access to the Post letter archives that would be a brilliant find.
Leveller 69 on August 6th, 2009 3.32 pm

chdarat you’re brilliant. No. five colonized his own people with Western racist and puritanical ideals and norms so much for never being colonized and Thais internalized them as an inferiority-superiority complex … Do not blame the West blame your rulers!!

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