Maintaining the status quo – a city of extremes
Chris Clowes gets a second shot at the guest blog....
In my previous blog, I got accused of going for a clickbait title, so I chose this much more subtle effort! Work ends up getting in the way of blogging at times but here’s a slightly delayed continuation of thoughts from my previous blog. Last time I covered military coups, driving deaths and religion when looking at the constant balancing act going on in Bangkok – so something a little lighter this time!
If you’ve ever watched the film Hangover 2 – you’ll know Bangkok has a well-earned reputation for a great night out with bars and venues which would not be licensed in the UK, on a par with Amsterdam’s most famous red-light districts. These establishments are typically found in tourist areas, aimed at men on nights out with perhaps looser morals than they have in the UK.
Working in Bangkok, office dress for females is mostly far more liberal than in the UK. Think a father saying “you’re not going out dressed like that” to his daughter! This is all in sharp contrast to a society which is typically very conservative and places great importance on the family unit. I also keep being told Thai’s are not very tactile – whatever you do, don’t touch someone! After three months I’m finding quite the opposite and British awkwardness keeps coming out as I feel like I’m in Latin America rather than a South East Asian country.
Tourists are crucial for the Thai economy. Something which causes much ire on social media is separate pricing policies for Thais and foreigners (or farangs). For me, there are two schools of thought – is this lowering the price for local, very low-income Thais so they can experience Thailand’s attractions or a way of exploiting rich tourists. Having said that, the same pricing policy applies to wealthy Thai’s and foreigners who have lived here for 10 years! I hope it’s the former and certainly don’t feel victimised. It’s a rather arbitrary way of collecting and distributing wealth. Other countries do similar things but perhaps not quite so obvious nor direct, such as the UK’s high taxation on flights.
In the past few years, there has been much debate on the trickle-down economy and the effectiveness of it. During the recent years of austerity, there has been a discussion about the role of government and providing a social safety net. I am in no way saying Thailand is an example for the world to follow, however, I do see some interesting ambition and taking ownership for one’s own situation. Here are some very small examples. Despite recent infrastructure improvements, we’ve not yet dared to drink the tap water and have been creating immense amounts of plastic waste. In the absence of any type of formal recycling approach, we were filling up the bin daily and having to empty it. #firstworldproblems but annoying nonetheless. So, we bought a 2nd bin which we put all the plastic into. We placed this outside our house Saturday morning when we walked the dogs ready for collection on Sunday. When we returned from the walk, it had gone! We later realised there is a secondary informal rubbish collection service which goes around ahead of the formal collection, collecting anything which can be sold. Brazil calls them carrocas – in the absence of a known name in Thailand, I call them entrepreneurs. The same has happened with two defunct office chairs, a suit and a pair of trainers. The effort put into rubbish collection in the UK, is at least halved in Thailand through innovative individuals looking to improve their life a little. A second example is the “house shops” which are everywhere. People selling everything – food, alcohol, plants, printing materials, builders merchants – anything you can imagine is open virtually 24/7 at the bottom of people’s homes. This informal economy must be hard to govern and regulate (not sure I want to know what the equivalent food safety ratings would be) and virtually impossible to collect taxes. In a society where family provides the social safety net, isn’t money in people’s pockets better than in a military government’s? Trump seems to be demonstrating this in the US now with a number of large organisations justifying pay increases and bonuses because of recent tax cuts.
I’ve written both these blogs as purely observations with a few comments. I’m no sociologist, politician nor economist – a mere retailer! Thailand clearly has many areas it can improve on. There are however some intricacies and anomalies which are surprisingly endearing.
In my previous blog, I got accused of going for a clickbait title, so I chose this much more subtle effort! Work ends up getting in the way of blogging at times but here’s a slightly delayed continuation of thoughts from my previous blog. Last time I covered military coups, driving deaths and religion when looking at the constant balancing act going on in Bangkok – so something a little lighter this time!
If you’ve ever watched the film Hangover 2 – you’ll know Bangkok has a well-earned reputation for a great night out with bars and venues which would not be licensed in the UK, on a par with Amsterdam’s most famous red-light districts. These establishments are typically found in tourist areas, aimed at men on nights out with perhaps looser morals than they have in the UK.
Working in Bangkok, office dress for females is mostly far more liberal than in the UK. Think a father saying “you’re not going out dressed like that” to his daughter! This is all in sharp contrast to a society which is typically very conservative and places great importance on the family unit. I also keep being told Thai’s are not very tactile – whatever you do, don’t touch someone! After three months I’m finding quite the opposite and British awkwardness keeps coming out as I feel like I’m in Latin America rather than a South East Asian country.
Tourists are crucial for the Thai economy. Something which causes much ire on social media is separate pricing policies for Thais and foreigners (or farangs). For me, there are two schools of thought – is this lowering the price for local, very low-income Thais so they can experience Thailand’s attractions or a way of exploiting rich tourists. Having said that, the same pricing policy applies to wealthy Thai’s and foreigners who have lived here for 10 years! I hope it’s the former and certainly don’t feel victimised. It’s a rather arbitrary way of collecting and distributing wealth. Other countries do similar things but perhaps not quite so obvious nor direct, such as the UK’s high taxation on flights.
In the past few years, there has been much debate on the trickle-down economy and the effectiveness of it. During the recent years of austerity, there has been a discussion about the role of government and providing a social safety net. I am in no way saying Thailand is an example for the world to follow, however, I do see some interesting ambition and taking ownership for one’s own situation. Here are some very small examples. Despite recent infrastructure improvements, we’ve not yet dared to drink the tap water and have been creating immense amounts of plastic waste. In the absence of any type of formal recycling approach, we were filling up the bin daily and having to empty it. #firstworldproblems but annoying nonetheless. So, we bought a 2nd bin which we put all the plastic into. We placed this outside our house Saturday morning when we walked the dogs ready for collection on Sunday. When we returned from the walk, it had gone! We later realised there is a secondary informal rubbish collection service which goes around ahead of the formal collection, collecting anything which can be sold. Brazil calls them carrocas – in the absence of a known name in Thailand, I call them entrepreneurs. The same has happened with two defunct office chairs, a suit and a pair of trainers. The effort put into rubbish collection in the UK, is at least halved in Thailand through innovative individuals looking to improve their life a little. A second example is the “house shops” which are everywhere. People selling everything – food, alcohol, plants, printing materials, builders merchants – anything you can imagine is open virtually 24/7 at the bottom of people’s homes. This informal economy must be hard to govern and regulate (not sure I want to know what the equivalent food safety ratings would be) and virtually impossible to collect taxes. In a society where family provides the social safety net, isn’t money in people’s pockets better than in a military government’s? Trump seems to be demonstrating this in the US now with a number of large organisations justifying pay increases and bonuses because of recent tax cuts.
I’ve written both these blogs as purely observations with a few comments. I’m no sociologist, politician nor economist – a mere retailer! Thailand clearly has many areas it can improve on. There are however some intricacies and anomalies which are surprisingly endearing.
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