Comments on: Thailand Beyond The Fringe

By: Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 05:13:59 +0000

Mithran: Well put. After all, there are fleets of taxis here with massive “I (heart) Farang” stickers on the back window. I have yet to see any “I (heart) Kaek” stickers. South Asians, a distinctly affluent and long-established class here in Thailand, are not as admired (or fetishized) the way farangs are.

chdarat: Many of us feel you, brother. Try not to measure farangs’ opinions from the message boards! Reasonable people don’t judge a country only by its GDP and its shopping malls. We like Thailand’s mix of beauty, affordability, kindness, style and, for the lucky among us, career opportunity. If it was all about “development,” I’d move to Singapore … and, speaking personally, I’d rather eat glass.

By: chdarat

chdarat — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:53:51 +0000

bosunj, et al

Enjoy reading this especially the comments.

It feels good to read the discussion as sometimes I’m totally overwhelmed by some farangs attitudes!

At the risk being accused of being anti westerners, I like to say this. Stop judging us by your standards, please! Even if your standards are high, they derived from your cultural and historical needs and not ours.

We, here in Thailand, have been rescued by westerners playing brave knights so many times that some of us only wait to be rescued by you. Making it hard for us to gain perspective and we are losing sight of makes us who we are!

Yes Thailand is a developing country and this does not mean develop to be like the west.

Look at us now; success means having your lifestyle at a very high cost!

We are aping you in material status. To be equal means a permit to cheat, lie and step on people, to get there.

That will not help us, correction, has never helped us! Instead it leaves us feeling shallow and we will always be walking behind you instead of alongside you.

If you want to understand then why not put yourself in our shoes instead of making us wear yours and feel how uncomfortable they are right now! We do not wear the same size! They will never fit!

By: Mithran

Mithran — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 08:07:56 +0000

bosunj, I meant the West choses to interpret democracy as open markets. Clearly it’s nothing of the sort.

By: bosunj

bosunj — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:14:12 +0000

Democracy’s all very well when it means open markets …

Democracy = open markets?

Lack of open markets means what exactly to the so called third world vis-à-vis democracy?

By: Mithran

Mithran — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:45:06 +0000

I sometimes wish the “don’t call me farang” farangs had some perception of what their own countries are like for foreigners. Here’s a hypothetical. Say for some reason while living in BKK you decide to walk to a friend’s house, but then find you have to go the long way round because, “We don’t want any Pakis down our street.” Anyone had that happen to them here? No, didn’t think so. I had enough of it growing up in London.

MongerSEA: Yes, there’s a huge demand for democracy in the underdeveloped world. It’s just a pity there’s not an equal demand for it in the West. Hussein, Pinochet, Mobutu … kept in power by who? Democracy’s all very well when it means open markets but God help the third world when it doesn’t.

By: bosunj

bosunj — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:19:12 +0000

No, I’m not the author. I’m not anti-Westerner. I am anti-I’m better smarter than Asians or Thais because I’m a Westerner. I am anti-farang who’s unhappy here and won’t go home or at least keep one’s trap shut about how much one hates what one sees here.

I’m a Westerner myself. You’d know that had you taken the time to click on my linked user name rather than jerking one’s knee.

If you’re distressed by my rebuttal to MongerSEA but not to his comments then perhaps you’ll be unlikely to consider a different opinion at all.

Perhaps Dan might integrate a bio page?