Thailand Crashing? Poll
You have this nice and this ugly face of Thailand. You do not only have the first Thai head of government in living memory who’s presentable and speaks some proper English. You also have events pushing Thailand back to the Dark Ages and the high-profile fugitive who laughs of Thailand’s justice system as a joke. The bad and the ugly, they’re both nice and ugly at the same time, depending what glasses you’re wearing.
But while of importance to John Doe, a much more existentialist fight than the Clash of the Elites is starting to deeply hurt the lower levels of the kingdom’s society. The conflicts at the top trickle down more and more, somehow everyone’s affected and the country is, yes, stuck. No real investment. No more visionary aims. No nothing. Just the long wait that something will happen.
That something will happen some day somehow. Until then, is the kingdom crashing in slow motion? Just take this: For the foreseeable future Thailand will flood the labor market with cheap labor as we learn that nearly 114,000 students dropped out of school last year, many of them citing poverty as the main reason for breaking off their education. That’s not only a scary number. That’s tomorrow’s cheap labor.
Yes, there are these educational reforms. But reform per se has become an oxymoron in Thailand. Or take the airport. Where else in the world for heaven’s sake can the authorities arrest hundreds of touts at the airport – hey, this is the capital’s window to the world! – and there’s no end to it. Show a hint of leniency in Thailand, and it’s abused.
The list of deteriorations can go on and on. Many factors play in. A stable world economy has saved many a dictator’s life. But where is the once proud kingdom. Thailand has become a synonym for failure and backwardness and Nothing really functions. Nothing truly works. Prices rise , each taxi driver is considered to be a potential rapist, politician bluntly only working for their own and themselves.
But then again, has your life here really deteriorated? Or is all the doomsday more hearsay?
Nothing really changed? Same old freedoms and same old chaos, just more pronounced?
A visitor recently from Singapore who visited Bangkok for the first time told me the place looks like India, like a slum. Yes, I looked surprised. But had a look around, in downtown Bangkok. And had to agree. Familiar, but slumish. We just don’t see it anymore when seeing it everyday.
Is Thailand crashing?
I take silence as a yes, things got really worse. But hey, we’re only bystanders.
If one is objective one would realize that no matter what country you’re in these days very little works. There are crisis of governance everywhere you go. Many of the so-called first world countries are suffering under greater crisis than is Thailand.
As for the first time visitor to Thailand’s remarks about it looking like India I can only say that recently the tourist/expat/Sukhumvit slum area certainly looks somewhat like the better parts of India. Get out into the better parts of Bangkok where it’s quite nice, people are nicer and prices and service are better and it looks nothing like India.
“A visitor recently from Singapore who visited Bangkok for the first time told me the place looks like India, like a slum.” Certainly compared to Singapore (I know he used India as an example) then Bangkok is a trash can.
What I’ve noticed over the last few years of political instability is increasing signs of “visible corruption”: uneven pavements full of holes because of missing materials, small business owners bought out or businesses demolished to clear land which remains undeveloped, condos announced and deposits taken but not built, more scams involving police (raids in Patpong, Airport corruption). Also many more beggars, disabled and kids on the streets than before.